GIFT  OF 


THE   MINISTRY   OF   EVIL 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS 
ALSO 

A  STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 


BY 
CHARLES  WATSON  MILLEN 


There  is  some  soul  of  goodness  in  things  evil, 
Would  men  observingly  distil  it  out. 

SHAKESPEARE 

And  I  have  felt 

A  presence  that  disturbs  me  with  the  joy 
Of  elevated  thoughts;  a  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused. 

WORDSWORTH 


BOSTON 

SHERMAN,  FRENCH  £  COMPANY 
1913 


X  "\ 


COPYRIGHT,  1913 
SHERMAN,  FRENCH  &>  COMPANY 


TO 

THE  TEARS  THAT  HAVE  REFLECTED  RAINBOWS, 
THE  LOSSES  FOUND  TO  BE  TREASURES, 
THE  MISFORTUNES  REVEALED  AS  BLESSINGS, 
THE  CROSSES  THAT  HAVE  HID  THEIR  CROWNS, 
THE  ENEMIES  THAT  BLINDLY  COMPELLED  TO  A 

BETTER    PATH 
TO 

ALL    THE    UNLOVING    AND    UNLOVED 
THIS    VOLUME    IS    GRATEFULLY    DEDICATED 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE       1 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

PRELUDE 11 

EVIL    IN    THE    WORLD    AND    ITS    MINISTRY 

THERE .      .  13 

INTERLUDE 26 

EVIL    IN    HEAVEN    AND    ITS    SUBJECTION 

EVERYWHERE 30 

A  REFLECTION 41 

REPLIES  TO  CRITICS 45 

A  STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE  123 


PREFACE 

Feeling  that  the  more  or  less  accepted  theo- 
ries of  evil  are  as  incompatible  with  truth  as 
they  are  inconsistent  with  each  other,  I  have 
endeavored  to  present  a  view,  which,  to  say  the 
least,  does  not  dishonor  God's  character  nor 
contradict  the  Bible.  I  believe  that  the  true 
theory  of  evil  does  not  make  God  in  any  degree 
responsible  for  its  existence,  that  it  does  not 
give  Satan  a  free  hand  in  the  moral  disturbance 
of  God's  universe,  and  that  it  does  not  imply 
the  permanence  of  evil  either  in  active  or  pas- 
sive form. 

In  the  creation  of  high  orders  of  beings  en- 
dowed with  free  will,  the  possibility  of  evil  be- 
comes necessary.  The  power  of  free  choice  im- 
plies both  good  and  evil  as  possible.  And  this 
is  as  true  of  God  as  it  is  of  His  moral  creatures, 
for  He  is  free.  He  cannot  confer  a  power 
which  He  does  not  possess.*  1 

The  will,  or  power  of  free  choice,  in  each  free 
agent  is  one  faculty.  Good  and  evil,  there- 

*The  figures  found  in  connection  with  "Preface"  and 
poem  refer  to  criticisms  and  answers  correspondingly 
numbered  under  "Replies  to  Critics." 


2  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

fore,  proceed  from  the  same  source.     God  ex- 
presses that  power  for  righteousness  and  thus 
is  the  personification  of  goodness.     The  being 
whom  He  made  nearest  to  Him,  the  one  most 
like  Him,  probably  the  first  of  His  moral  crea- 
tures and  head  of  angelic  hosts,  endowed  with 
marvelous    and   irrevocable    powers,    expresses, 
probably  not  from  the  beginning  and  possibly 
not   forever,   his   will   in   unrighteousness,   and 
therefore  is  the  embodiment  and  father  of  evil. 
According  to   some   of   our  mental  philoso- 
phers, the  will  in  man  acts  for  good  or  evil  in 
conformity   with   the   motives   which   affect   it. 
But  does  it  not  act,  rather,  according  as  it  is 
acted  upon  by  the  primary  representatives  of 
good  and  evil,  and  often  without  the  weighing 
of  motives  in  any  conscious  degree?     Explain- 
ing the   cause   of  her  fall,  Eve  said:     "Satan 
beguiled  me   and  I   did  eat."     When  Ananias 
deceived  as  to  the  price  for  which  he  sold  a 
piece  of  land,  Jesus  said:     "Why  hath  Satan 
filled  thy  heart  to  lie  to  the  Holy  Ghost?"     So, 
also,  it  was   Satan  who  tempted  Jesus  in  the 
wilderness.     Hence    the    language    of    David's 
confession  of  his   great  offense  is   suitable  to 
every  acknowledgment  of  sin:     "Against  Thee, 
Thee  only,  have  I  sinned  and  done  evil  in  Thy 
sight."     We  are  good  or  evil  as  our  will  yields 
to  the  will  of  God  or  of  Satan.     Trench,  in  his 
"Study  of  Words,"  says :     "To  find  guilt  in  a 


PREFACE  3 

man  is  to  find  that  he  has  been  beguiled  by  the 
devil, — 'instigante  diabolo,'  as  it  is  inserted  in 
all  indictments  for  murder,  the  forms  of  which 
come  down  to  us  from  a  time  when  men  were  not 
ashamed  of  tracing  evil  to  his  inspiration." 

While  God's  nature  requires  Him  to  do  all  in 
His  power,  consistent  with  the  perfect  freedom 
of  the  subject,  to  prevent  evil  choice,  yet,  in  the 
contingency  of  its  occurrence,  it  is  necessary 
for  God  to  permit  evil  to  such  extent  as  may 
fully  demonstrate  the  free  agency  of  the  sub- 
ject, but  not  to  the  extent  of  destroying  His 
moral  government.  Perfect  free  agency  is  com- 
patible with  supreme  moral  sovereignty.2 

God's  nature  also  requires  Him  mercifully  to 
interpose  in  the  sinner's  behalf  and  to  make  evil 
contribute  to  His  own  glory  and  the  sinner's 
profit  in  the  highest  possible  degree.  This  He 
does  by  giving  to  evil,  in  the  abstract  and  in  its 
concrete  forms,  an  adequate  ministry  through 
the  gift  of  His  Son.  He  is  justified  in  making 
possible,  by  the  creation  of  free  beings,  the  evil 
which  He  can  turn  to  infinite  advantage  both  to 
Himself  and  to  them,  especially  if  it  be  His  pur- 
pose to  finally  overcome  it. 

In  presenting  the  benefits  which  come  through 
evil,  therefore,  we  are  not  commending  evil,  but 
glorifying  God,  who  overrules  and  uses  it  for 
good.  To  the  creature  belongs  all  the  responsi- 
bility for  the  introduction  of  evil  into  the  uni- 


4  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

verse,  while  to  the  Creator  belongs  all  the  credit 
for  its  having  become  a  blessing  therein. 

We  hold  that  God  cannot  create  or  choose 
evil ;  but  when  once  introduced,  He  may  use  evil 
against  evil  and  in  a  sense  make  evils,  so  called, 
as  He  did  when  by  His  curse  He  transformed 
the  agreeable  and  intelligent  serpent  who  con- 
versed with  Eve  into  the  vile  reptile  that  now 
lurks  in  hidden  places  and  lures  or  stealthily 
strikes  his  unsuspecting  prey.  It  was  the  ser- 
pent of  His  creation,  not  the  reptile  of  His  curse, 
that  God  pronounced  good. 

Mosquitoes  that  annoy,  caterpillars  that 
nest  in  the  trees  and  destroy  their  foliage,  army 
worms  that  devour  the  growing  crops, — all  the 
tormenting  and  destructive  vermin  known  as 
pests, — are  evils,  but  in  service,  and  God  made 
them  only  as  He  made  "thorns  and  thistles"- 
the  representative  evil  products  of  the  earth 
while  under  His  curse.  They  form  no  part  of 
His  original  creation.  They  minister  to  our 
discipline  in  the  contention  and  war  which  we 
are  compelled  to  wage  against  them.  And  so 
we  should,  perhaps,  thank  God  for  them  and 
their  very  vexing  proclivities. 

Though  the  earth  would  not  have  been  cursed 
but  for  man's  fall,  yet  the  curse  has  relation 
mainly  to  the  future.  It  may  show  to  man, 
earth's  chief  inhabitant,  the  blighting  charac- 
ter of  sin  and  remind  him  of  that  greatest  pos- 


PREFACE  5 

sible  cataclysm  which  involved  him  so  deeply, 
but  as  the  earth  could  not  participate  in  the 
moral  tragedy  of  Eden  beyond  being  the  passive 
scene  of  it,  it  could  not  be  cursed  on  its  own 
account.  The  curse  of  the  earth  was  a  part 
of  the  curse  pronounced  upon  man  and  was  so 
full  of  hope  that  in  his  changed  moral  relations 
and  conditions  it  became  the  occasion  of  his 
greatest  blessing.  Man  should  sweat,  but  he 
should  eat;  he  should  labor,  but  his  labor 
should  find  ample  reward;  he  should  meet 
evil,  but  he  should  overcome  it — never  again 
should  evil  be  his  master,  but  evermore  his 
servant ;  he  should  suffer,  but  not  without  profit, 
and  through  it  his  seed  should  be  multiplied, 
from  which  should  come  his  Divine  Redeemer — 
the  Savior  of  all  men,  especially  of  them  that 
believe.  God  did  not  curse  the  earth  in  anger 
for  man's  sin,  but  in  love  for  man's  sake;  it 
was  not  for  man's  punishment,  but  for  his  de- 
velopment. 

Is  evil  needful  in  the  universe?  God  has 
created  moral  beings,  angelic  and  human,  and 
both  have  fallen.  Is  evil  needful  in  heaven  as 
in  earth,  for  angels  as  for  men?  Does  God 
need  it  for  the  accomplishment  of  His  highest 
purposes?  Surely  God  uses  it  and  through  it 
opens  in  Himself  and  in  every  one  of  His  in- 
telligent creatures  the  fountains  of  sympathy 
and  healing  that  shall  flow  perpetually.3 


6  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

"Replies  to  Critics,"  forming  a  considerable 
part  of  this  volume,  will  be  regarded  by  many 
as  more  valuable  than  the  poem,  an  abstract  of 
which  has  received  the  consideration  of  the  best 
Biblical  scholarship  available.  While  some 
have  given  it  unqualified  commendation,  it  has 
presented  to  others  difficulties  and  objections 
which  they  have  kindly  and  courteously  stated, 
meriting  my  highest  appreciation  and  placing 
me  under  a  welcome  debt  of  obligation.  My 
replies  have  been  made  in  no  spirit  of  contro- 
versy, but  of  loyalty  to  seeming  truth.  The 
Scripture  passages,  to  which  have  been  given  a 
new  interpretation  and  application,  are  worthy 
of  most  careful  study.  False  views,  whatever 
their  antiquity  or  endorsement,  contribute  no 
advantage,  and  every  error  corrected  here  can  do 
no  less  than  to  save  us  from  disappointment 
hereafter. 


"A  Study  of  the  Future  Life"  is  unique  in 
its  character  and  original  in  its  conclusions. 
It  is  not  a  speculation.  It  is  not  a  revamp  of 
any  ism  or  theory.  It  is  a  new  conception 
based  upon  reason,  resemblance  and  Revelation. 
It  casts  a  modifying  light  upon  many  teachings 
of  the  Church  and  gives  a  new  and  beautiful 
meaning  to  many  texts  of  Scripture.  It  will 
interest  even  where  it  may  not  convince.  Be- 


PREFACE  7 

lieving  that  it  will  yet  be  the  generally  accepted 
doctrine  of  the  future  life,  I  am  glad  to  be  its 
author. 

The  birth  of  this  book  has  been  in  the  valley 
of  Baca,  secluded,  shadowy,  tearful ;  yet  sound- 
ing no  note  of  gloom,  it  reveals  God  as  always 
on  the  throne  and  always  the  God  of  love.  Its 
picture  of  the  fair  morning  of  creation  invaded 
by  elements  that  threaten  confusion  and  uni- 
versal wreck,  dissolves  into  another  of  all- 
embracing  peace  and  perfect  harmony,  the  sun 
shining  in  splendor  and  not  a  cloud  in  all  the 
sky.  I  send  it  forth  with  the  earnest  hope  that 
it  will  stimulate  thought,  improve  faith,  encour- 
age contentment,  help  to  a  still  clearer  state- 
ment of  the  problem  of  evil,  and  inspire  the 
most  grateful  view  of  the  gracious  character 
and  righteous  government  of  God. 

C.  W.  M. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 


PRELUDE 

When  angels  sing,  they  voice  their  joy, — 

No  minor  strains  their  harps  employ; 

Creation's  glories  wake  their  song 

That  worlds  reecho  and  prolong, 

Distilling  into  tuneful  ears 

The  mystic  music  of  the  spheres; 

The  Savior's  birth  in  glad  refrain 

They   chant   o'er   Bethlehem's   hallowed  plain; 

For  each  poor  sinner's  contrite  tears 

Their  loud  hosannas  Heaven  hears. 

And  poets  angels  are,  who  sing 
Of  whom  and  what  they  love;  they  bring 
Bright  flowers  of  speech  and  rarest  gems 
Of  thought  to  form  rich  diadems 
Wherewith  to  deck  with  deftest  art 
And  crown  fond  objects  of  their  heart. 

They  sing  their  joys.     No  flames  of  hate, 
No  sorrows  inarticulate, 
No  shrouded  grief,  or  pain,  or  crime, 
Should  poet's  fancy  weave  in  rhyme. 

They  sing  of  art ;  of  home  and  friends ; 

And  Nature's  ample  book  extends 

11 


12          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

The  list  of  themes  all  poets  love 
In  earth  below  and  stars  above. 

They  sing  of  beauty,  virtue,  grace, 
And  paint  the  joys  of  that  dear  place 
Where  holy  ranks  of  seraphs  sing 
And  pay  pure  worship  to  their  King; 
Where  saints  in  radiant  splendor  shine, 
Reflecting  glory  all  divine; 
Where  poets,  too,  whose  loves  are  pure, 
Their  rich  reward  will  find  secure. 

Sing  on,  ye  bards ;  the  world  needs  song ; 
Enough  of  grief;  enough  of  wrong. 
Sweet  comfort  give;  let  all  your  lays 
Bring  hope  of  brighter,  better  days, 
And  every  strain,  like  balsam,  heal 
The  wounds  our  hearts  would  fain  conceal. 

God's  messengers  mankind  to  bless, 

Increase  the  sum  of  happiness; 

The  truth  make  clear  in  spite  of  creed; 

True  love  incarnate  in  the  deed; 

Give  hope  that  shines  when  stars  fade  out; 

Give  faith  that  conquers  death  and  doubt ; 

Heaven's  chalice,  not  fine  fancies,  pour 

To  save  men  now  and  evermore. 


EVIL  IN   THE   WORLD   AND  ITS 
MINISTRY  THERE 

In  this  perplexing,  changeful  life 
Evil  and  good  are  strangely  blent; 
In  greatest  ill  some  good  is  found, 
With  greatest  good  some  ill  is  sent. 

The  tempest,  fiendlike  in  its  rage, 
To  fields  and  homes  sad  havoc  brings, 
Yet,  like  an  angel,  freights  away 
Contagion  foul  on  lustral  wings. 

The  summer  sun  that  pours  his  beams 
To  light  the  world,  give  life  and  joys, 
Augments  the  toiler's  heavy  task, 
And  often  feeble  life  destroys. 

The  breath  that  fans  the  brow  of  care 
May  soon  in  wild  tornado  blow; 
The  shower  that  quenches  nature's  thirst 
In  hurtling  flood  may  madly  flow. 

The  hated  thing  we  get  may  bless, 
Our  greatest  loss  may  prove  a  gain; 
Fond  Friendship's  tender  hand  may  smite, 

The  fount  of  knowledge  issue  pain. 

13 


14          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

The  wholesome  law  by  evil  lives, 

Ambition's  crown  is  won  by  cost, 

To  trial  Virtue  owes  a  debt, 

And  heaven  is  gained  through  Eden  lost. 

Strange  paradox — the  human  heart! 
High  purpose  lives  with  base  desire, 
And  worship's  flame  is  oft  obscured 
By  noxious  fumes  of  passion's  fire. 

Evil  exists — within,  without — 
Ubiquitous  as  light  or  air; 
Nor  from  its  power  is  there  escape, 
Its  challenge  meets  us  everywhere. 

Into  this  fair  and  virgin  world 
The  subtle  serpent  had  brought  sin 
If,  made  with  sense  of  right  and  wrong, 
A  moral  creature  he  had  been. 


Endowed  with  freedom,  man  brings  sin, 
And  sin  hath  need  of  tearful  woes ; 
Thus  evil  through  the  world's  long  age 
A  current  all  diffusive  flows. 

It  burdens  beast  and  bird  and  bee, 
Affects  the  land  and  billowy  main, 
Imbues  the  air,  nor  spares  the  light; 
The  whole  creation  groans  in  pain. 


EVIL  IN  THE  WORLD  15 

And  yet  not  profitless  this  stream, 
For  God  makes  use  of  good  and  ill; 
By  His  permission  evil  lives, 
And  what  can  countervail  His  will?  *  * 

God  loves  not  ill  nor  ill  ordains; 
He  wills  not  ill  nor  ill  creates ; 
He  still  forbids  and  punishes, 
Yet  turns  to  use,  the  ill  He  hates. 

'Tis  true  that  God  the  law  ordains, — 
Each  seed  its  own  shall  e'er  repeat; 
Who  sows  to  flesh  must  gather  chaff, 
Who  sows  to  spirit  garners  wheat. 

Yet  e'en  the  whirlwind's  chaff  shall  serve 
To  feed  desire  to  conquer  ill ; 
Through  struggle  Virtue  mounts  her  throne 
According  to  God's  perfect  will. 

We  own  God's  right  to  grant  free  choice, 
Though  freedom  evil  may  purvey; 
True  love  implies  the  power  to  hate, 
Obedience,  power  to  disobey. 

The  power  inheres,  but  not  the  right, 
To  choose  the  wrong  where  will  is  free, 
For  conscience  lives,  and  sternest  law 
Forbids  the  choice  with  penalty. 

*  The  figures  found  in  connection  with  "Preface"  and 
poem,  refer  to  criticisms  and  answers  correspondingly 
numbered  under  "Replies  to  Critics." 


16          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

Perverted  use  of  powers  bestowed 
Is  not  the  generous  Giver's  blame, 
But  his  who  holds  the  sacred  trust, 
And  he  must  bear  the  guilt  and  shame. 

God  wills  that  free  man's  will  shall  be, 
But  not  the  evil  it  projects ; 
He  must  permit  the  free  will's  choice, 
Though  'gainst  His  will  that  will  elects. 

Free  agency  has  yet  its  zone, 

Within  a  sovereign  realm  it  lies ; 

All  evil  bounded  God  compels 

To  swell  His  praise  through  earth  and  skies.5 

To  human  fall  is  closely  joined 

Love's  intervention  all  divine; 

While  one  o'er  earth  deep  shadows  casts, 

The  other  like  the  sun  doth  shine. 

Man's  fall  was  into  clearer  light, — 
With  opened  eyes  as  God  he  stood; 
By  knowing  ill  he  also  knew 
The  beauty,  power,  and  worth  of  good.6 

Man's  fall  was  into  greater  strength, — 
From  Eden's  enervating  bower 
He  went  with  virile  brain  and  thews 
To  win  a  world  with  lordly  power.7  8 


EVIL  IN  THE  WORLD  17 

Man's  fall  was  forward  into  hope 
That  springs  eternal  in  the  breast, 
Adorns  each  cloud  with  golden  fringe, 
And  pledges  heaven's  untroubled  rest.9 

Fair  Modesty  therein  finds  birth, — 
Suave  charm  is  seen  in  charms  concealed, 
And  honored  is  Humility 
In  beauty's  artless  blush  revealed.10 

Can  wardrobe  without  cloth  be  made, 
Or  thread  and  needles  to  sustain? 
Ay,  leaves  are  deftly  sewed  and  formed, 
For  genius  kindles  in  the  brain. 

The  procreative  functions  held 
Erstwhile  unconscious,  now  awake ; 
Fond  parentage  desired,  each  home 
Shall  hence  another  Eden  make. 

In  her  farewell  to  Paradise, 
Eve  could  lament  to  leave  sweet  flower, 
Fair  fount,  loved  walk,  and  grateful  shade, 
But  not  embellished  nuptial  bower.11 

The  law  man  knew  was  that  of  works, — 
Do  this  and  live;  do  that  and  die; 
The  higher  law  of  love  appears 
When  evil  calls  it  from  the  sky. 


18          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

Yet  not  to  man  is  credit  due 
For  opening  love's  sweet  mystery; 
The  starry  choirs  and  angels  sing — 
Christ  is  the  key  of  history. 

Not  one  would  claim  that  man  foresaw 
Results,  e'en  in  the  least  degree, 
When  putting  forth  his  hand,  he  took 
The  fruit  of  that  forbidden  tree. 

One  only  law  to  him  was  given, — 
Of  these  trees  eat,  from  that  refrain; 
No  hint  of  tempter  he  received, 
Nor  knew  he  aught  of  death  or  pain. 

He  suffered  not  from  noonday  sun, 
Nor  felt  the  chill  of  dew  or  rain, 
And  when  God's  hand  removed  a  rib 
In  sleep  profound,  he  knew  no  pain. 

Of  evil  capable  he  was, 
But  not  to  evil  choice  inclined; 
All  from  without  temptation  came, 
Not  his  the  bent  his  offspring  find. 

Like  simple  child  he  disobeyed, 
Nor  good  nor  evil  did  he  know ; 
He  knew  not  what  temptation  was; 
Mindless  was  he  of  weal  or  woe. 


EVIL  IN  THE  WORLD  19 

While  good  and  evil  were  unknown, 
No  promise  happy  hope  could  wake, 
Nor  threat;  of  pending  wrath  and  doom 
With  fear  the  placid  bosom  shake.12 

Nor  do  we  palliate  his  guilt 

With  studied  show  of  mere  pretense 

When  we  recall  the  mercy  shown 

To  those  who  plead  "the  first  offense." 

And  when  the  law  was  thus  transgressed, 
The  strict  requital  fed  love's  flame; 
A  higher  type  of  man  God  wills, 
And  greater  glory  to  His  name.13 

Uprightness,  more  than  innocence, 
Obedience  true  of  virtue  born, 
And  loyal  love  with  liberty, 
Must  now  man's  character  adorn. 


God  has  for  him  a  higher  thought 
Than  roseate  morning's  lavish  dower ; 
High  noon's  estate  and  heaven's  pure  bliss 
Surpass  the  joys  of  Eden's  bower. 

Creation,  vast  and  marvelous, 
Must  yield  to  glory  far  above, — 
Through  sin's  dark  portals  Jesus  comes 
And  founds  a  kingdom  ruled  by  love. 


20  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

In  all  God's  works  and  words  and  ways, 
One  purpose  high  He  executes, — 
That  He  may  show  Himself  as  God 
In  all  His  wondrous  attributes. 


Worlds  must  exist,  for  God  has  power; 
Design  must  show,  for  God  is  wise ; 
And  shall  not  evil  contrast  good 
To  give  God's  love  full  exercise? 

To  show  Himself,  to  perfect  man, 
God  uses  what  He  could  not  make, — 
A  hostile  force,  opposing  will, 
And  thirst  His  pity  springs  to  slake. 

God's  finished  work,  called  "very  good," 
No  blemish  saw  nor  swift  decay, 
No  noxious  weed  the  earth  produced, 
Nor  pain  nor  pest  beset  man's  way. 

As  Science,  skilled  in  Nature's  laws, 
Evolves  new  forms  in  flowers  and  fruits, 
So  fecund  earth,  for  man's  "sake"  cursed, 
To  raid  and  scourge  brings  fresh  recruits. 

What  God  created  and  approved 
Commands  our  love  and  guardian  care ; 
The  serpent's  seed  demands  our  hate, 
Though  "bruised  heel"  be  ours  to  bear. 


EVIL  IN  THE  WORLD  21 

The  enemy  the  tares  has  sown; 
Yet  noisome,  hurtful,  deadly  things 
God  uses  for  our  discipline, 
And  thus  by  them  a  blessing  brings. 

Slight  is  the  hurt,  the  blessing  great, 

Of  all  who  toil  beneath  the  curse 

Which  shines  so  gemmed  with  promise  bright, 

It  gilds  with  hope  the  universe.14 

When  shown  with  its  antithesis, 
The  truth  in  strongest  light  appears ; 
How  brief  is  man's  mortality 
Compared  with  God's  eternal  years. 

Our  knowledge  is  by  contrasts  gained, — 
We  know  the  light  because  of  shade; 
Our  joys  we  prize,  for  grief  is  felt 
When  in  the  grave  our  hopes  are  laid. 

If  nothing  called  forth  pity's  tears ; 
If  none  were  weak,  or  poor,  or  lone ; 
If  all  were  right  and  nothing  wrong, 
The  softest  heart  would  turn  to  stone.15 

What  use  were  power  where  naught  resists, 

Or  pity  where  is  no  distress, 

Or  pardon  where  no  wrong  is  done, 

Or  patience  where  no  foes  oppress? 


22  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

Now  God  is  love,  His  followers  kind, 
The  sinner  free  forgiveness  knows, 
Compassion  shares  Misfortune's  pain, 
And  mercy  like  a  river  flows. 

'Tis  needful  that  offenses  come, 
Was  uttered  by  the  Master's  voice; 
Resistance  lends  to  Effort  aid, 
But  woe  to  him  who  sins  from  choice. 

"It  must  needs  be."     How  kind  those  words ; 
Some  treacherous  cloud  our  eyes  may  veil; 
We  know  in  part ;  our  will  is  weak ; 
The  best  and  strongest  sometimes  fail. 

God's  curse  imposed  now  works  sin's  cure; 
Sore  trials  wake  man's  moral  sense; 
Afflictions  chasten  spirits  proud, 
And  lead  to  humble  penitence. 

Though  willful  sinners  oft  require 
Keen  pain — the  law's  corrective  rod — 
Yet  sometimes  sufferings  are  sent 
To  manifest  the  works  of  God. 


And  thus  God's  best  may  suffer  most, 
Though  sin  and  sorrow  are  akin ; 
Were  upright  Job,  the  man  born  blind, 
And  Jesus,  sufferers  for  their  sin? 


EVIL  IN  THE  WORLD 

As  punishment,  or  discipline, 
Or  that  His  glory  God  may  show, 
We  sorely  suffer,  nor  see  why, 
Nor  is  it  needful  we  should  know. 


Enough  if  ministry  severe 
Its  noble  purpose  shall  secure 
And  make  this  world  a  safer  place 
Than  Adam  found  in  Eden  pure. 

Whence  comes  the  fullness  of  the  stream 
In  blessings  to  the  thirsty  vale? 
It  nursed  the  breast  of  mountain  cloud, 
Borne  thence  and  torn  by  fiercest  gale. 

And  whence  this  peace,  serene  and  deep, 
That  makes  life's  dirge  a  joyful  psalm? 
God's   strong  hand  smote  my  wayward  heart, 
Then  gently  poured  sweet  Gilead's  balm. 

Between  the  oyster  and  its  shell 
A  grain  of  sand  produces  pain ; 
Encisted  there,  what  alchemy 
Can  turn  mute  suffering  into  gain? 

Concentric  folds  of  membrane  laid — 
Tears  calcified — are  Nature's  means 
To  heal  the  wound  and  form  a  pearl 
To  deck  the  coronet  of  queens. 


24  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

Howe'er  benign,  we  cannot  pray 

For  sickness,  poverty,  or  grief ; 

Nor  should  we  plead  for  what  may  harm — 

For  riches,  fame,  or  pain's  relief. 

"If  it  be  possible,  O  God, 
Let  this  most  bitter  cup  pass  by; 
Yet  not  my  will,  but  Thine  be  done." 
Thus  Jesus  prayed;  "Amen,"  we  sigh. 

If  I  in  my  Gethsemane 

Can  breathe  the  prayer  of  God's  dear  Son, 

Then  I  may  face  my  Calvary 

And  cry — "My  Lord  and  I  are  one." 

The  hordes  of  ill,  the  hosts  of  good, 
About  us  press  with  promise  fair; 
Perchance  the  good  is  blindly  spurned 
And  ill  embraced  with  eager  care. 

We  dare  not  choose,  we  do  not  know, 
What  cup  to  drink,  what  voice  believe; 
We  only  know  our  thirst  is  great 
And  sweetest  draughts  may  most  deceive.16 

For  virtue's  sake  God  gives  His  Jobs 
And  Peters  into  Satan's  hands ; 
Nor  could  His  Christ  the  trial  shun ; 
Who  falls,  yet  rises,  truly  stands. 


EVIL  IN  THE  WORLD  25 

Thou,  Who  the  cruel  wine  press  trod 

In  sad  Gethsemane  alone, 

Who  captive  led  Captivity, 

And  didst  for  all  our  sins  atone; 

Thou,  Who  for  sifted  Peter  prayed 

He  might  the  test  of  faith  endure, 

Then  cast  on  him  a  timely  look — 

The  look  that  saved — love's  strongest  lure; — 

Turn,  look  on  us,  ere  faith  quite  fails; 
Incline  our  hearts  to  things  above, 
To  take  what  comes  and  lean  on  God, 
For  ALL  works  good  to  them  that  love. 


INTERLUDE 

God  in  His  wisdom  made  the  sun, 

With  planets  in  his  train, 
And  countless  suns  and  systems  still 

Which  realms  of  space  contain. 

In  wisdom  God  hung  out  the  moon 
And  did  her  course  command, 

And  not  amiss  He  flung  the  stars 
From  His  Almighty  hand. 

To  all  He  gave  important  work, 
Assigned  them  power  and  place, 

Prescribed  their  orbit's  wondrous  path, 
And  timed  their  tireless  race. 

Precision  all  their  movements  marks, 
They  all  true  balance  keep, 

Their  inclinations  are  exact 

As  through  deep  space  they  sweep. 

Therefore  the  grateful  seasons  turn, 
Hence  follow  night  and  day, 

So  ebb  and  flow  the  ocean's  tides ; 
For  WORLDS  God's  law  obey. 


INTERLUDE  27 

See  how  the  face  of  nature  fair 
God's  limning  doth  forever  bear ; 
His  purpose  grand  in  all  is  seen—- 
In ocean's  surge  and  landscape's  sheen, 
In  dew-gemmed  grass  and  blooming  flowers, 
In  rocks  and  glades,  and  oak  that  towers 
Umbrageous  over  vale  and  hill, 
Where  nature  freely  works  her  will. 
The  seed  has  germs  to  reproduce 
Its  kind  in  numbers  most  profuse, 
And  thus  the  husbandman  well  knows 
The  source  from  which  rich  harvest  grows. 

The  birds  that  chirp  their  modest  lays 
Or  loudly  sing  their  Maker's  praise ; 
The  beasts  that  toil,  or  lurk  in  lair ; 
E'en  insects  buzzing  through  the  air; 
Reptiles  that  slink  from  glance  of  men ; 
The  croakers  of  the  dismal  fen; 
And  finny  tribes  that  fill  the  deep ; — 
To  instinct  true,  their  place  all  keep, 
And  be  their  mission  good  or  ill, 
They  ne'er  transgress  their  Maker's  will. 
This  lesson,  then,  we  learn  with  awe — 
All  NATURE  keeps  God's  perfect  law. 


And  can  our  God  less  mindful  be 
Of  those  designed  eternally 
His  image  pure  to  bear? 


28          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

Has  he  no  work,  no  place,  no  plan 
For  noble,  regal,  godlike  man, 
Who  may  His  glory  share? 

Where'er  we  look  this  truth  is  taught — 
Man  lives  in  God's  divinest  thought, 

Has  in  His  plans  high  place. 
As  lord  of  all  the  world  below, 
His  work  is  great  as  angels  know, — 

O  happy  human  race. 

Yet  man  alone,  with  power  to  say, 
"I  will,"  "I  will  not,"  breaks  away 

And  yields  to  passions  base; 
His  lofty  lineage  he  belies 
And  spurns  the  love  no  good  denies, — 

Ah,  wretched  human  race. 

A  planet  from  its  orbit  hurled 
By  force  centrifugal — a  world 

Enwrapped  in  doleful  gloom — 
Is  emblem  of  the  fallen  man 
Whose  will  would  thwart  his  Maker's  plan 

And  rush  him  on  to  doom. 

But  grace  shall  melt  the  hardest  heart, 
And  balm  divine  shall  cure  the  smart 

Of  sin's  malignant  sores. 
The  Son  of  God  for  man  hath  died ; 
"  'Tis  finished,"  on  the  cross  He  cried ; 

The  Cross  lost  man  restores. 


INTERLUDE  29 

Great  God,  we  fall  before  Thy  face 
And  glad  receive  Thy  saving  grace, 

So  fully,  freely  given. 
What  joy,  what  ecstasy,  what  bliss 
When  Thou  from  sin  the  soul  dost  kiss ; 

The  night  of  storm  is  riven. 


EVIL  IN  HEAVEN  AND  ITS  SUBJEC- 
TION EVERYWHERE 

Evil  in  heaven !     Amazing  fact, 
That  angels  left  their  pure  estate ! 
How  fell  the  first,  the  chief,  the  prince? 
What  world  could  lure  a  soul  so  great? 

Endowed  with  power,  enrobed  in  light, 
His  headship  angels  glad  to  own, 
Too  proud  to  render  service  high, 
He  craved  a  kingdom,  sought  a  throne. 

Did  Lucifer,  so  near  to  God, 
Bright  sun  of  heaven's  glorious  morn, 
Involve  by  sin  the  hosts  he  led 
As  Adam  did  his  race  unborn? 

The  facts  we  know  would  seem  to  point 
To  parent,  offspring,  kindred  all ; 
One  law  for  every  living  thing; 
"Seed  of  its  kind"  for  great  and  small. 

When  God  would  send  His  Son  to  earth, 
He  must  be  parented  like  man; 
As  baby  born  in  Joseph's  home 

His  wondrous  life  on  earth  began. 

30 


EVIL  IN  HEAVEN  31 

Or  were  angelic  beings  made 
Each  one  distinct  and  separate, 
No  kinship  felt,  alone  to  hold 
Or  leave  at  will  his  pure  estate? 

Enough  to  know  one  angel  proud, 
With  ranks  of  pliant  satellites, 
Dared  challenge  God's  supremacy 
And  disavow  His  sacred  rights. 

The  rebel  hosts  for  conflict  form 
And  horrid  war  in  heaven  they  wage ; 
There  overcome,  to  earth  they  haste 
And  pour  on  man  their  vengeful  rage. 

But  man,  though  like  the  angels  free, 
Did  not  through  vain  ambition  fall; 
The  supple  serpent  Satan  used, 
Of  creatures  craftiest  of  all, 

The  serpent  cursed  beyond  all  hope, 
The  human  pair  from  Eden  sent. 
Oh,  why  was  Satan  not  rebuked 
Unless  his  sway  some  service  meant? 

Indeed,  in  heaven  he  still  appeared, 
In  council  met  with  sons  of  God, 
And  brought  report  of  what  he  learned, 
As  up  and  down  the  earth  he  trod. 


32  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

To  angels  fallen  into  sin 
His  tender  mercy  God  reveals ; 
Methinks  redemption  they  are  given, 
Nor  one  in  vain  to  Him  appeals. 

Cannot  God's  Son  the  angels  save 
And  heaven's  righteous  law  maintain, 
Since  from  foundation  of  the  world 
The  precious  Lamb  of  God  was  slain? 

The  voice  the  human  flock  obey 
The  angels  know  who  Christ's  love  share ; 
Them  He  must  bring  His  "other  sheep" 
To  form  one  fold,  one  Shepherd's  care. 

As  mercy  moral  law  implies, 
And  finite  powers  may  mercy  plead, 
So  surely  God  must  find  a  way 
To  meet  a  sinning  angel's  need.17 

When  Jesus  came  in  human  flesh, 

Thus  lower  made  than  Seraphim, 

God  gave  command  throughout  His  worlds — 

"Let  all  the  angels  worship  Him." 

Who   disobeyed  this   righteous   test, 
E'en  tempting  Jesus  to  rebel, 
Bore  guilt  God's  justice  could  not  brook, 
And  swift  from  heaven  like  lightning  fell. 


EVIL  IN  HEAVEN  33 

By  blood  of  Lamb,  o'ercome,  cast  out, 
To  earth  confined,  let  heaven  rejoice; 
Our  brethren  there  no  more  shall  hear 
The  serpent's  false,  accusing  voice. 

Woe  for  the  earth  and  for  the  sea ! 
To  them  the  devil  has  come  down ; 
As  prince  he  moves  the  powers  of  air, 
As  this  world's  god  he  wears  the  crown. 

The  fabled  Harpies,  Furies,  Fates, 
Producing  storms  and  dire  events, 
Were  mystic  hints  of  Satan's  power 
In  nature's  active  elements. 

He  lays  on  men  infirmities 

For  which,  alas,  no  cure  is  found; 

The  woman  bent  and  bowed  Christ  healed, 

Lo,  eighteen  years  had  Satan  bound. 

His  power  is  great,  his  time  is  short, 
He  lays  his  lures  on  every  hand, 
With  skill  provides  what  weakness  wants ; 
Ah,  who  against  his  wiles  can  stand? 

God  is  supreme;  He  won  in  heaven 
When  Michael  'gainst  the  dragon  fought ; 
And  Christ,  in  pure  humanity, 
O'er  Satan  splendid  triumph  wrought. 


34  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

A  moral  government  involves 
A  power  supreme  o'er  subjects  free, 
And  published  law,  adapted,  just, 
Whose  sanctions  weigh  eternally. 

Jehovah  reigns,  does  not  coerce, 
Constrains  by  love  and  wisdom's  voice, 
Provides  fair  field,  respects  free  will; 
Oh,  therefore,  let  the  earth  rejoice. 

Evil  abounds,  but  never  rules, 
It  still  contends,  but  must  retreat. 
While  claiming  all,  it  loses  all, 
And  leaves  the  record  of  defeat. 

The  furnace  heated  seven  fold 
Receives  the  Hebrew  children  bound, 
But  fire  their  fetters  only  burns, 
For  there  the  Son  of  God  is  found. 


In  our  dear  Elder  Brother's  name, 
As  more  than  conquerors  we  sing; 
The  boasting  Grave  no  victory  claims ; 
And  vaunting  Death  has  lost  his  sting. 

All  time,  all  things, — the  thick  events 
That  crowd  the  earth  or  heavens  above,- 
All  words  and  works,  all  joys  and  tears, 
Are  servants  of  the  God  we  love. 


EVIL  IN  HEAVEN  35 

E'en  Satan  is  God's  minister, 
And,  though  unwilling,  serves  Him  well, 
Else  God  would  banish  him  from  earth, 
And  justly  cast  him  down  to  hell. 

To  hell?     Ah,  not  to  dark  despair; 
Sane  law  blest  privilege  provides ; 
Unchanging  goodness  e'er  invites ; 
Fair  Hope,  like  Faith  and  Love,  abides. 

"Until  he  finds," — oh,  welcome  words — 
The  shepherd  seeks  the  sheep  astray; 
"Until  she  finds"  the  prized  lost  coin, 
The  woman's  search  knows  no  delay. 

And  thus  in  parable  Christ  shows 
How  long  He  will  His  grace  declare, 
"Until  He  finds,"  nor  "wings  of  morn," 
Nor  "bed  in  hell"  defeats  His  care. 

i 

Probation  is  a  myth,  as  taught; 
Can  fickle  choice  fix  changeless  fate? 
With  life  forever  under  law, 
No  soul  shall  hopeless  cry,  "Too  late." 

Too  late  to  gather  golden  store, 
Too  late  Ambition's  crown  to  win, 
Too  late  to  use  lost  privilege, — 
But  ne'er  too  late  to  cease  from  sin.18 


36          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

"I  am  the  door;  if  any  man 
Shall  ope  the  door,  I  will  come  in," 
No  time  lock  on  this  promise  sure, 
"I  will  come  in  and  save  from  sin." 

One,  only  one  condition  given, 
Though  men  another  oft  attach, 
Sweet  fellowship  is  found  whene'er 
Faith's  fingers  reach  the  ready  latch. 

When  thus  we  see  Thee,  loving  Lord, 
Our  dull  delay  we  deep  deplore, 
And  rise  and  press  with  eager  haste 
To  open  wide  the  welcome  door. 

A  wasted  spring  lean  harvest  brings, 
And  age  bemoans  a  youth  misspent, 
Neglect  may  bring  uncovered  loss, — 
An  everlasting  punishment. 

Then  whence  this  heaven  of  bliss  secured? 
Ah,  not  through  our  f orgetfulness ; 
Our  sins  behind  God's  back  are  cast 
When  we  in  Christ's  dear  name  confess. 


'Tis  here  or  there  or  any  place, 
High  heaven  is  found,  or  deepest  hell; 
Each   is    condition — bliss    or   woe — 
Wherever  moral  creatures   dwell. 


EVIL  IN  HEAVEN  37 

God  is  the  God  of  life,  not  death, 
His  kingdom  ruleth  over  all; 
His  endless  rule  still  signals  hope; 
No  ear  too  deaf  to  hear  His  call. 

Just  punishment  has  purpose  kind ; 
For  every  sinner  Jesus  died; 
He  sees  the  travail  of  His  soul, 
And  saving  all,  is  satisfied. 

Nothing  is  lost;  the  leaf  that  falls, 
Feeding  the  roots  of  yonder  tree, 
Shall  climb  to  life  in  flower  and  fruit, 
In  golden  summers  yet  to  be. 

The  rain  descends  and,  warmed  by  sun, 
Returns  ethereal  to  the  skies, 
There  soon  compressed  by  cooling  winds, 
Again  it  falls,  again  to  rise. 

God  sees  each  raindrop  in  its  rounds — 
Above,  below,  through  all  the  years, 
And  knows  it  still  in  mist  or  stream, 
In  dew  gemmed  flowers  or  flowing  tears. 

"Gather  the  fragments,"  Jesus  said, 
And  thus  to  meanest  things  applied 
His  holy  will  concerning  all, 
And  most  of  all  for  whom  He  died. 


38  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

Ideals — prophecies  of  truth — 
In  time's  ripe  fullness  are  concrete; 
To  loftiest  fancies  Art  gives  form, 
The  dreams  of  Science  spurn  defeat. 

Ideals — too  good  to  have  been, 
So  good  they  must  be,  soon  or  late, 
Embrace  for  all  this  wholesome  hope — 
The  endless,  holy,  blissful  state. 

For  all  mankind  Christ  came  and  died; 
With  thought  of  all  He  went  away; 
To  all  the  Comforter  He  sends 
To  teach  His  truth  and  give  it  sway. 

More  potent  now  the  words  of  Christ 
Than  when  from  His  own  lips  they  fell ; 
And,  added  truth,  the  "things  to  come," 
Yea,  "all  things"  e'en,  shall  He  foretell. 

He  knows  no  bounds ;  not  "straightened"  He, 
But  "searches  all,"  "convinces  all," 
"Shows  all  their  sin,"  "commands  return," 
And  "mighty  signs"  enforce  His  call. 

Triumphant  triune  God,  Thy  work 
Complete  in  earth  and  heaven  I  boast. 
A  sinless  universe  must  come; 
My  faith  is  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 


EVIL  IN  HEAVEN  39 

We  know  not  now,  though  sons  of  God, 
What  we  shall  be  when  Christ  appears, 
When  face  to  face  Him  we  shall  see 
With  sight  undimmed  by  clouds  or  tears. 

We  see  Him  not  with  vision  clear, 
Else  our  poor  dross  would  turn  to  gold ; 
But  in  the  light  of  God's  white  throne 
His  glory  bright  we  shall  behold. 

Yet  not  at  once  the  full  orbed  view, 
Nor  sudden  comes  the  wondrous  change; 
The  law  of  moral  life  is  growth, 
Whatever  be  its  realm  or  range. 

"When   He   appears."     Oh,   glorious    sight! 
The  worlds  subdued  before  Him  fall ; 
Subjected  all,  Himself  subjects 
To  God  the  Father— "All  in  all." 

Not  once  surprised  nor  unprepared, 
Nor  facing  possible  defeat, 
God  rules,  and  good  and  evil  join 
To  make  His  victory  complete: — 

Complete ;  nor  man  nor  angel  lost, 
Nor  evil  lifts  defiant  head ; 
Christ's  enemies  are  now  His  friends; 
E'en  Death,  His  last  grim  foe,  is  dead. 


40  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

As  one  who  seeks  the  fields  in  spring, 
Reviving  nature's  hope  perceives, 
Discovers  buds  of  promise  full, 
And  sweet  arbutus  'neath  dead  leaves, 

So  he  who  loves  God's  word  will  find, 
Assisted  by  the  Spirit's  breath, 
Truth's  radiant  garb  in  forms  effete, 
And  throbbing  life  mid  husks  of  death. 

Ah,  who  can  say  ill  has  no  place 
In  realms  by  moral  creatures  trod, 
Or  who  deny  that  it  proclaims 
The  wisdom,  power,  and  love  of  God? 

Faith  sees  the  universe  at  peace, 
From  evil  gain,  approved  God's  ways,19 
All  knees  in  humble  worship  bent, 
And  vocal  every  tongue  with  praise.20 


A  REFLECTION 

Methinks  the  birds  that  never  sing, 
Within  their  breasts  have  songs ; 

They  love  and  mate,  and  show  the  joy 
To  which  all  song  belongs. 

And  birds  that  sing,  more  music  have 
Than  their  few  notes  impart; 

Their  voiceless  airs  are  heard  by  Him 
Who  tunes  the  choiring  heart. 

So  multitudes  who  lack  the  skill 
To  form  the  rhythmic  line, 

The  soul  of  poesy  possess, 
And  feel  the  flame  divine. 

And  poets  who  most  sweetly  sing 
Have  sweeter  songs  unsung, 

Melodious  whispers   from  above, 
For  which  there  is  no  tongue. 

God's  gifts  are  good ;  enough  to  know 

His  will  His  pleasure  brings ; 
Who  made  and  touches,  gladly  hears 

The  harp  of  thousand  strings. 
41 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

Sublime  the  thrill  of  those  mute  songs 

Not  tuned  for  stolid  ears; 
His  life  they  make  an  epic  grand 

Whose  soul  their  cadence  hears. 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS. 

1.  "In  your  Preface  you  say,  'The  power  of 
free  choice  implies  both  good  and  evil  as  possi- 
ble. And  this  is  as  true  of  God  as  it  is  of  His 
moral  creatures,  for  He  is  free.  He  cannot 
confer  a  power  which  He  does  not  possess.9 
Does  not  the  President  of  the  United  States 
confer  a  power  which  he  does  not  possess  in  his 
appointment  of  postmasters?  I  hold  that  God 
is  not  free;  He  cannot  choose  evil." — A.  E.  D. 

That  which  is  morally  impossible  may  be 
absolutely  possible.  Our  claim  that  God  is  free 
in  the  absolute  sense  is  justified  by  the  reason 
assigned.  If  further  proof  is  desired,  it  is 
found  in  the  nature  of  goodness,  which  to  be 
praiseworthy  must  be  voluntary,  just  as  evil 
to  be  blamed  must  be  chosen. 

The  Federal  Government  forms,  owns,  and 
controls  the  whole  postal  system.  It  has  made 
a  class  of  postoffices  appointive,  and  the  presi- 
dent is  the  government's  representative,  as  also 
is  the  postmaster,  in  the  discharge  of  official 
duties.  The  government  confers  the  power 
which  it  alone  possesses.  Its  servants  may 
come  and  its  servants  may  go,  but  the  govern- 
ment, as  the  highest  expression  of  the  sovereign 

people,  goes  on  forever. 
45 


46  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

It  is  true  that  God,  as  God,  cannot  choose 
evil.  This  leads  me  to  a  position  beyond  that 
which  is  taken  by  many  who  deny  God's  absolute 
freedom.  With  God,  as  such,  there  is  only  the 
superlative  degree.  Good  and  better,  as  mean- 
ing less  than  the  best,  are  not  in  His  vocabulary. 
There  are  those  who  ask,  "Why  is  the  world  as 
it  is,  when  Ged  might  have  made  it  so  differ- 
ently?" Leibnitz,  a  celebrated  German  philos- 
opher, held  that  "God  saw  an  infinite  number 
of  worlds  before  Him  as  possible."  I  hold  that 
the  infinitely  perfect  Being  must  be  actuated  by 
the  perfect  conception.  In  the  creation  and 
government  of  the  universe  He  is  bound  by  His 
very  nature  in  all  things  to  do  His  best.  Nei- 
ther suns  nor  planets  could  better  serve  the  high 
purpose  of  their  existence.  Angels  in  their 
realm  are  the  complete  expression  of  God's  per- 
fect ideal  concerning  them.  Man,  crowned 
with  freedom,  and  this  world  as  his  starting 
point  could  not  have  been  made  otherwise. 
Nor  beast  nor  bird  nor  butterfly,  as  such  and 
in  their  respective  spheres,  could  be  improved. 
Perfection  stamps  every  thought  and  action 
and  purpose  of  God.  To  the  question,  "Why 
hast  Thou  made  me  thus  ?"  there  can  be  but  one 
answer;  it  was  the  best  that  God  could  do. 
When  God  surveys  all  that  He  has  made  or  done 
or  spoken,  He  pronounces  it  "very  good," — 
the  best,  with  the  end  in  view,  that  infinite  wis- 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  47 

dom  could  devise  or  power  execute  or  love  con- 
template. The  works  of  the  Lord,  like  His 
law,  are  perfect.  Instead  of  there  being  an 
infinite  number  of  possible  ways  open  before 
God,  there  is  ever  but  one  way  and  that  is  not 
the  good  nor  the  better,  but  the  best  way. 
Even  morally  our  world  is  as  good  as  God  has 
been  able  to  make  it.  God,  as  God,  must  do 
His  best  and  be  so  unchangeable  in  respect  to 
His  own  perfections  and  the  principles  of  His 
administration  as  to  be  without  the  "shadow 
of  turning." 

Such  a  God — choosing  to  be  such — who  would 
not  adore?  His  character  is  the  source  of  our 
hope,  our  joy  and  our  confidence;  our  incentive 
to  watchfulness,  prayer,  and  fidelity;  our  en- 
couragement to  the  practice  of  every  virtue 
and  the  cultivation  of  every  grace.  If  God  be 
so  unchangeable  in  His  attributes  and  character 
that  He  must  do  for  us  always  that  which  is 
the  best  that  our  circumstances  will  allow,  then 
it  follows  that  in  His  manifestations  He  is  the 
most  changeable,  the  most  responsive  being  in 
the  universe,  every  moment  suiting  His  action 
toward  us  according  to  our  changing  conditions 
and  relations.  When  we  turn  toward  Him,  He 
turns  toward  us ;  when  we  are  tempted,  He  is 
concerned;  when  we  pray,  He  listens;  when 
we  strive,  He  assists ;  when  we  weep,  He  com- 
forts. It  becomes  us,  therefore,  to  come  into 


48          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

closest  relation  of  loving  obedience  to  God  so 
that  His  best  for  us  may  not  be  punishment 
and  pain,  but  pardon  and  purity  and  peace. 
This  view  renders  superfluous  any  test,  scien- 
tific or  otherwise,  of  the  value  and  efficacy  of 
prayer.  * 

£.  "If  I  take  exception  to  anything  in  your 
Preface  it  is  to:  'It  was  necessary  for  God  to 
permit  evil,9  etc.  I  infer  that  you  mean  He 
could  not  prevent  it." — D.  c.  B. 

You  state  my  position  correctly.  While  to 
permit  implies  the  power  to  prevent,  yet  by  the 
creation  of  free  beings  God  to  a  limited  extent 
surrenders  that  power.  He  cannot  prevent 
the  exercise  of  the  creature's  given  power  of 
freedom.  He  cannot  prevent  evil  if  the  free 
agent  chooses  it.  He  may  deny  the  right  to 
choose  it  by  forbidding  it;  He  may  attach  to 
evil  choice  painful  consequences  and  encourage 
the  choice  of  good  by  loftiest  motives,  but  be- 
yond this  on  any  principle  of  justice,  He  can- 
not go. 

I  make  no  distinctions  in  my  conclusions  be- 
tween evils — physical  or  moral,  original  or  con- 
sequential, parental  or  progenial.  Stress  is 
laid  upon  the  fact  that  God  uses  evil  of  every 
kind  and  that  He  gives  it  such  a  ministry  as 
justifies  Him  in  the  creation  of  free  beings, 
under  law,  while  foreseeing  the  full  character 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  49 

and  extent  of  the  evil  which  they  would  choose. 
Freedom  does  not  necessitate  evil  choice,  there- 
fore God  could  create  free  beings,  knowing  that 
they  would  choose  evil;  knowing,  also,  that  He 
could  make  good  use  of  that  evil.  Now,  having 
created  such  beings,  God  cannot  prevent  by 
the  display  of  His  almightiness  the  exercise  of 
their  given  power.  To  do  so  would  destroy 
their  moral  responsibility  and  His  moral  gov- 
ernment. 

Calvinism  in  some  of  its  aspects  has  cast  a 
baneful  shadow  over  the  theology  of  Christen- 
dom. Theologians  have  been  frightened  by  the 
cry  of  "divided  sovereignty."  But  the  sover- 
eign choice  of  the  free  agent  has  not  been 
usurped.  God  has  yielded  it,  and  not  only  so, 
He  has  hedged  it  about  with  prohibitions  and 
penalties  and  limited  it  to  the  fullest  degree 
consistent  with  perfect  moral  agency.  More- 
over, while  He  yields  limited  supremacy  over 
the  will,  He  retains  absolute  sovereignty  over 
the  resulting  act,  compelling  the  wrath  of  free 
creatures  to  praise  Him.  ' 

So  related  and  ordered  are  the  zone  of  the 
creature's  moral  agency  and  the  realm  of  God's 
moral  sovereignty  that  any  infringement  of^pne 
upon  the  other  is  impossible.  God  cannot  en- 
ter the  zone  of  free  agency  with  any  compelling 
power  over  the  will.  Look  at  that  first  diso- 
bedience in  Eden.  The  first  Adam  stood  in  the 


50          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

presence  of  evil,  unaided  and  alone.  God  saw 
the  approach  of  the  serpent,  observed  his  in- 
sinuating address,  heard  His  own  command 
contradicted,  realized  fully  the  gradual  yield- 
ing of  Adam's  will  and  what  the  result  would  be, 
yet  gave  no  sign  of  His  presence,  no  signal  of 
warning,  no  outward  or  inward  influence,  to 
shape  the  fateful  decision.  Adam  stood  alone 
in  that  crisis  as  the  second  Adam,  four  thou- 
sand years  later,  stood  alone  in  that  dark  hour 
when  He  cried,  "My  God,  my  God,  why  hast 
Thou  forsaken  me?" 

God  saw  the  serpent  of  Satan  possessed, 
Approach  mother  Eve  with  exquisite  grace; 
He  saw  falsehood  clothed  with  specious  half-truths, 
And  knew  the  result,  yet  hid  He  His  face. 

Why?  Because,  having  made  our  first  parents 
perfect  moral  beings  and  given  them  perfect 
law  for  the  government  of  their  moral  conduct 
— a  law  that  was  clear  to  their  understanding 
and  appealed  to  their  conscience, — He  could 
not  interfere  with  their  power  of  free  choice; 
He  must  respect  His  own  gift — free  will. 

Occasionally  we  hear  someone  say,  "If  I  had 
God's  power,  I  would  not  allow  men  to  sin  and 
wreck  themselves  and  bring  so  much  suffering 
upon  the  innocent."  But  God  will  exercise  His 
power  only  in  righteousness.  He  derives  no 
pleasure  from  evil  and  does  everything  He  can 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  51 

to  prevent  it.  Yet  God  must  suffer  evil  in  the 
event  of  its  choice,  in  order  to  have  moral  crea- 
tures in  His  universe  under  a  beneficent  moral 
government.  Still,  evil  must  ever  bow  to  the 
Divine  prerogative  of  supreme  moral  sover- 
eignty. 

This  view  not  only  relieves  God  from  every 
degree  of  responsibility  for  the  existence  of 
evil  in  the  universe,  but  it  removes  the  prevail- 
ing difficulties  which  have  made  it  so  hard, 
sometimes,  to  love  Him.  Calvinists  have  taught 
that  "All  is  of  God,  ordained  by  Him."  To 
the  average  jmind  this  view  makes  God  the 
author  of  evil.  The  view  of  Arminians  is 
scarcely  better,  which  is  that  God  could,  if  He 
would,  avert  the  evil  and  the  anguish.  It  is 
impossible  for  the  ordinary  mind  not  to  feel 
that  this  view  makes  God  cruel. 

I  have  a  better  faith.  I  believe  that  God, 
while  He  made  me  capable  of  evil,  made  me 
wisely,  governs  me  kindly,  loves  me  tenderly, 
and  does  the  best  He  can  for  me  even  in  cir- 
cumstances for  which  He  is  not  responsible; 
that  if  He  cannot  withhold  me  from  choosing 
evil,  He  will  overrule  my  evil  for  good,  and  that 
if  He  cannot  remove  the  "thorn"  from  which  I 
suffer,  He  will  glorify  Himself  by  giving  me 
grace  to  bear  it,  and  make  it  work  out  for  me, 
under  conditions  which  I  can  control,  a  far 
more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory. 


52  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

In  this  faith  His  yoke  is  easy  and  His  burden 
light. 

3.  "  'Is  evil  needful  in  the  universe?9  I 
answer ,  no;  for  God  forbade  it  in  advance. 
He  would  not  forbid  what  was  needful" — 
j.  w.  A. 

I  answer,  no  and  yes.  It  is  not  necessary,  as 
a  fact,  undeniably,  absolutely.  If  it  were, 
God  would  be  responsible  for  it;  nor  could 
He  forbid  it,  for  it  could  not  be  prevented. 

Evil  is  absolutely  necessary  as  a  possibility 
to  free  moral  agents.  It  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary as  a  possibility  where  good  is  possible. 
As  a  possibility  evil  is  eternal.  As  a  fact  evil 
is  temporal.  For  the  eternal  possibility  of  evil 
God  is  responsible.  For  the  temporal  fact  of 
evil  the  free  moral  creature  is  responsible. 

Evil  as  a  fact  is  needful  conditionally.  It 
is  needful  in  order  to  obtain  certain  ends  or 
results,  as  tools  are  necessary  to  profitable  la- 
bor, or  clothing  to  greatest  comfort,  or  schools 
and  teachers  to  higher  education.  No  one 
should  deny,  I  think,  that  evil  is  needful  in  or- 
der to  show  us  God  in  the  tran:scend,ently 
beautiful  side  of  His  character.  Evil  was 
necessary  in  order  that  Christ  might  come. 
True,  God  forbade  it  in  advance,  for  the  law 
must  conform  to  the  normal  and  the  perfect. 

You  are  familiar  with  maple  sugar  making. 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  53 

Well,  the  magnificent  maple  tree  might  have 
stood  on  the  hillside  in  the  beauty  of  unmarred 
perfection  and  the  world  remained  ignorant  of 
the  sweetness  of  its  sap,  had  not  some  woods- 
man wounded  it  with  a  blow  of  his  keen-edged 
ax.  But  from  that  wound  there  flows  in  profu- 
sion its  very  life  to  nourish  and  regale  even  the 
one  who  gave  the  cruel  stroke.  To  obtain  the 
delicious  sugar,  however,  the  wound  was  needful. 
So  God  might  have  occupied  His  throne  as 
Creator  and  Lawgiver,  displaying  the  evidences 
of  His  wisdom  and  power  on  every  hand,  and 
the  world  never  have  known  Him  in  the  tender- 
ness of  His  nature,  had  not  our  first  parents  in 
Eden  wounded  Him  by  their  disobedience.  But 
from  that  wound  has  poured  the  sweetness  of 
His  love  and  His  very  life,  sufficient  for  the 
nourishment  and  regalement  not  only  of  Adam 
and  Eve,  but  of  every  member  of  their  sin-con- 
tinuing race.  Yet  for  this  manifestation  of 
the  heart  of  God  the  introduction  of  evil  was 
needful. 

4<"Man9s  will  can  'countervail9  His  'mil.9' — 
L.  D.  w. 

The  word  "countervail"  has  been  carefully 
chosen.  It  means  to  offset,  to  counterbalance, 
to  oppose  with  equal  power.  Man  can  disobey 
God's  will,  but  if  he  can  oppose  it  successfully, 
he  is  therein  the  equal  of  God.  The  finite  will 


54  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

never  can  oppose  with  equal  power  the  Infinite 
will.  The  power,  not  the  right,  to  oppose  the 
Divine  will  is  God-given.  When  Pilate  said  to 
Jesus,  "Knowest  Thou  not  that  I  have  power 
to  release  Thee  and  have  power  to  crucify 
Thee?"  Jesus  answered  him,  "Thou  wouldst 
have  no  power  against  Me  except  it  were  given 
thee  from  above."  God  could  not  confer  a 
power  superior  to  His  own  and  He  would  not 
confer  a  power  equal  to  His  own.  He  would 
not  render  possible  His  own  defeat  by  such  gen- 
erous equipment  of  His  creature. 

Moreover,  God's  will  is  not  so  pivoted  that 
the  completed  human  act  of  disobedience  can 
void  the  far  reaching  Divine  purpose.  That 
by  which  man  intends  to  thwart  God's  plan 
often  becomes  the  means  of  its  speedier  ful- 
fillment. The  act  committed,  man  is  done  with 
it;  but  it  is  then  that  God  begins  with  it. 
The  act  committed  passes  from  the  limited 
zone  of  man's  freedom  to  the  unlimited  realm 
of  Divine  sovereignty.  God  is  not  dependent 
on  man's  fidelity  for  the  accomplishment  of 
His  purposes.  Man  does  not  work  God's  will. 
God  works  His  own  will.  He  who  sees  the  end 
from  the  beginning;  who  sitteth  upon  the  circle 
of  the  heavens  and  turns  the  seasons  round; 
whose  moral  administration  involves  Him  in  no 
difficulties,  and  who  cannot  be  surprised  or 
disappointed  or  defeated,  works  His  own  per- 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  55 

feet  will,  and  so  instead  of  its  being  counter- 
vailed in  any  instance,  in  the  end  it  is  always 
accomplished.  Read  the  second  Psalm.  "The 
nations  rage,  the  peoples  make  vain  plans,  the 
kings  of  the  earth  set  themselves,  and  the  rulers 
take  counsel  together,  against  the  Lord  and 
against  His  anointed ;  He  that  sitteth  in  the 
heavens  shall  laugh ;  the  Lord  shall  have  them 
in  derision."  i 

While  there  is  much  that  is  not  according  to 
God's  will,  yet  nothing  can  defeat  His  will. 
Time  is  an  important  element  in  the  struggle 
between  right  and  wrong,  but  the  issue  is  not 
doubtful. 

5.  "7  seriously  question  the  truth  of  your 
lines : 

'All  evil,  bounded,  God  compels 
To  swell  His  praise  through  earth  and  skies.' '' 

— S.  J.  M. 

It  is,  indeed,  difficult  to  see  how  the  meanness 
and  wickedness  of  men  can  be  made  to  swell 
God's  praise.  But  God  permits  evil,  for  we 
see  it  all  about  us.  God  overrules  evil,  for  it 
is  among  the  "all  things"  that  work  together 
for  good  to  them  that  love  Him.  God  limits 
evil,  for  unlimited  evil  would  destroy  His  moral 
government.  In  permitting  and  limiting  evil, 
God  has  a  purpose  and  all  God's  purposes  are 
high  and  worthy.  Now  in  limiting  evil,  where 


56          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

will  He  draw  the  line?  Will  He  limit  it  to 
what  He  can  control,  or  will  He  let  it  get  the 
best  of  Him?  The  question  answers  itself. 

Apropos  of  the  limiting  of  evil  is  the  follow- 
ing passage  in  "Titus  Andronicus,"  which 
Shakespeare  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Aaron, 
the  Moor: — 

"I  am  no  baby,  I,  that  with  base  prayers 
I  should  repent  the  evils  I  have  done; 
Ten  thousand,  worse  than  ever  yet  I  did, 
Would  I  perform  if  I  might  have  my  will." 

As  the  Rev.  Joseph  Cook  observes:  "It  is 
certainly  significant  that  Shakespeare,  who  has 
given  us  the  most  complete  science  of  the  hu- 
man passions  ever  written,  should  teach  that 
men  are  not  permitted  to  do  all  that  they  would 
of  evil." 

We  may  add,  if  men  are  limited,  so  is  Satan. 
Indeed,  we  have  one  notable  instance  of  Satan's 
limitations.  When  God  first  delivered  Job  into 
Satan's  hands  for  trial,  Satan  could  touch 
Job's  possessions,  but  not  his  person.  In  the 
second  trial  he  could  touch  Job's  person,  but 
not  his  life.  The  psalmist  says  (Psalms  76: 
10) :  "Surely  the  wrath  of  man  shall  praise 
Thee,  O  Lord,  and  the  remainder  of  wrath 
Thou  shalt  restrain."  If  these  words  mean 
anything,  they  teach  that  God  will  allow  no 
more  evil  than  He  can  overrule  for  good.  In 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  57 

restraining  what  He  cannot  use  and  in  using 
what  He  permits,  His  name  is  honored  in  earth 
and  skies. 

6.  "Did  not  man  really  know  the  power  of 
good  before  the  fall?" — s.  j.  M. 

In  Genesis  3:2  we  read:  "And  the  Lord 
God  said,  Behold  the  man  is  become  as  one  of  us, 
to  know  good  and  evil."  I  doubt  if  God  ever 
says  anything  superfluous,  much  less  mislead- 
ing. He  would  not  say  good  AND  evil  if  He 
meant  only  evil. 

The  Infinite  One  knows  absolutely,  while  our 
knowledge  is  largely  by  comparison,  as  hard 
and  soft,  wet  and  dry,  sweet  and  sour,  light 
and  shade,  rich  and  poor,  high  and  low,  near 
and  distant,  and,  also,  good  and  evil.  We 
really  know  not  the  one  until  we  know  the 
other. 

Experience,  also,  is  a  source  of  our  knowl- 
edge, and  man  in  experiencing  the  fall  did  not 
lose  his  God-likeness,  as  many  teach,  but  en- 
hanced it  in  one  respect,  at  least,  viz.,  "to 
know  good  and  evil." 

7.  "I  cannot  believe  that  the  fall  of  Adam 
was  into  4 'clearer  light9  or  'greater  strength.9  " 

\  S.    J.    M. 

In  reading  the  verses  which  speak  of  the  fall 
as  being  advantageous  in  respect  to  light  and 


58  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

strength,  it  is  necessary  to  connect  the  lines 
preceding : 

"To  human  fall  is  closely  joined 
Love's  intervention  all  divine." 

It  is  because  of  love's  intervention,  which  in- 
cludes the  curse  pronounced  upon  man,  that 
Adam's  fall  was  into  clearer  light  and  greater 
strength.  Love's  intervention  did  more  than 
merely  to  make  good  the  loss  involved  by  the 
fall  of  our  first  parents.  Whether  every  fall 
since  Adam's  has  been  a  fall  upward,  I  do  not 
know.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  men  may  profit 
by  their  faults  and  failures  if  they  will. 
Tennyson's  lines  are  no  less  true  than  they  are 
beautiful : 

"I  hold  it  truth,  with  him  who  sings 
To  one  clear  harp  in  divers  tones, 
That  men  may  rise  on  stepping-stones 
Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things." 

I  believe  that  all  evil,  whether  of  sin  or  sor- 
row, has  its  ministry,  either  positive  or  possi- 
ble. We  may  not  be  able  always  to  discern 
the  divine  service  which  weakness  and  wicked- 
ness are  compelled  to  render,  but  may  we  not 
trace  enough  to  establish  the  fact?  Does  not 
the  indifference  of  the  heartless  priest  and 
Levite  magnify  the  tender  humanity  of  the 
good  Samaritan?  Does  not  the  prodigal 
teach  us  a  lesson  of  our  heavenly  Father's 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  59 

mercy?  Is  not  Peter's  denial  of  Christ  made 
a  blessing  to  the  Church  through  all  time,  as 
it  was  the  occasion  of  defining  in  the  clearest 
manner  possible  the  work  of  a  faithful  and 
efficient  minister?  Would  we  have  had  some 
of  the  most  precious  truths  contained  in  the 
gospel  but  for  the  narrow  bigotry  of  scribe 
and  Pharisee?  Do  we  not  love  Jesus  better 
for  not  having  where  to  lay  His  head  than  if 
He  had  reposed  on  pillows  of  down  in  the  palace 
of  a  king?  If  the  woman  had  not  been  taken 
in  adultery,  we  should  not  have  heard  His  ten- 
der words :  "Neither  do  I  condemn  thee."  If 
His  enemies  had  not  nailed  Him  to  the  cross, 
we  should  not  hear  falling  from  His  lips  those 
words  of  infinite  sweetness:  "Father,  forgive 
them ;  they  know  not  what  they  do." 

St.  Paul  found  such  meaning  and  blessing 
in  the  "thorn  in  his  flesh"  that  he  came  to  glory 
in  his  infirmities,  and  Christians  ever  since,  be- 
cause of  it,  have  trusted  God  more  fully  for 
grace  to  bear  each  his  own  peculiar  trial. 

That  which  is  base,  as  well  as  that  which  is 
noble,  comes  to  us  in  blessing  by  the  power 
and  word  of  God.  There  are  angels  that 
climb  up  to  us  from  below  as  well  as  those  that 
descend  upon  us  from  above. 

8.  "Was  Eden's  'enervating  bower9  fit  to  be 
pronounced  'very  good*?" — j.  w.  A. 


60  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Eden's  bower  was 
perfectly  suited  to  Adam  and  Eve  for  the  brief 
time  which  God  well  knew  they  would  occupy 
it,  and,  therefore,  very  good.  If  it  was  not 
enervating  before  the  fall,  it  would  certainly 
prove  so  afterward,  and  God  mercifully  drove 
them  out  of  it.  We  now  develop  strength  by 
enduring  hardness,  nor  can  we  conceive  of  ease 
as  developing  either  brawn  or  brain. 

9.  "You  say,  'Man's  fall  was  forward  into 
hope.'  Are  the  unj 'alien  angels  hopeless?  I 
never  fall  into  an  old  cellar  that  I  may  secure 
the  hope  of  getting  out" — j.  w.  A. 

Yet  you  must  admit  that  having  fallen  into 
an  old  cellar,  your  hope  becomes  more  active 
and  you  become  more  conscious  of  its  reality. 
That  our  first  parents  in  Eden  had  the  hope 
faculty  there  is  no  doubt ;  but  was  there  scope 
for  its  exercise?  Notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  the  paradise  of  Adam  and  Eve  was  an 
earthly  one,  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that 
they  were  at  all  dissatisfied  with  it.  They  had 
the  stream,  the  foliage,  the  birds,  the  balmy 
air,  and  the  soft  blue  sky.  They  had  no  use 
for  raiment,  and  they  ate  their  food  without 
work  or  weariness.  Evidently  they  were  con- 
tented, knowing  nothing  of  hope  that  stimu- 
lates to  effort  for  the  betterment  of  conditions. 

Probably   the   unfallen   angels,   if   there   are 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  61 

such,  are  not,  strictly  speaking,  without  hope. 
"Which  things  the  angels  desire  to  look  into," 
would  indicate  that  they  hope  for  more  exten- 
sive knowledge.  They  also  may  hope  for  the 
good  of  the  human  race,  for  they  know  about 
us  and  our  needs.  But  hope,  as  we  understand 
it,  would  seem  to  belong  to  an  imperfect  state. 
Whether  it  is  increased  or  diminished  by 
fruition  may  be  a  question,  but  "Hope  that  is 
seen  is  not  hope,"  and  the  angels  with  God,  in 
whose  presence  is  fullness  of  joy,  are  satisfied. 

10.  "  "Fair  Modesty  therein  -finds  birth.9 
Are  not  all  holy  beings  modest?" — j.  w.  A. 

Well,  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  they  are 
immodest.  Before  the  fall,  Adam  and  Eve 
"were  both  naked  and  were  not  ashamed."  Im- 
mediately after  the  fall  "their  eyes  were 
opened  and  they  knew  that  they  were  naked ; 
and  they  made  for  themselves  aprons  of  fig 
leaves."  There  was  then  the  birth  of  some- 
thing new  in  this  world,  which  I  call  modesty. 
Holy  beings  are  neither  modest  nor  immodest, 
as  we  understand  the  term.  They  are  neither 
bold  nor  timid,  forward  nor  shy,  obtrusive  nor 
reserved,  but  preserve  the  happy  medium.  I 
refer  to  the  modesty  that  is  the  offspring  of 
conscious  limitations,  that  is  born  of  a  sense 
of  weakness  or  ignorance  or,  as  in  Adam's  case, 
of  guilt.  In  one  of  his  sermons  the  Rev.  F. 


62  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

W.  Robertson  says:  "Modesty  is  seldom  the 
attribute  of  the  untried.  Modesty  is  a  thing 
we  learn  generally  by  shame  and  failure." 
Surely  holy  beings  are  not  modest  in  the  Ro- 
bertsonian  sense. 

11.  "7  question  that  the  -first  pair  in  their 
innocence  were  unconscious  of  sex;  that,  made 
capable  of  reproduction,  they  had  no  use  for 
that  capacity;  that  one  of  the  results  of  sin 
should  be  pain  in  childbirth  if  there  was  not 
intended  to  be  painless  childbirth  in  the  sinless 
state" — j.  w.  A. 

This  criticism,  embodying  the  popular  belief 
on  this  point,  seems  plausible  but  is  not  un-i 
answerable. 

Presumably  Adam  and  Eve  from  the  begin- 
ning had  eyebrows,  but  they  had  no  use  for 
those  hirsute  arches  until  the  curse  compelled 
them  to  eat  their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their 
face.  If  man  had  one  thing  that  he  had  no  use 
for  in  his  innocence,  he  may  have  had  other 
things  and  faculties. 

When  those  two  disciples,  Cleopas  and  his 
companion,  were  joined  by  Christ  on  their  way 
to  Emmaus,  until  He  became  a  guest  in  their 
home  "their  eyes  were  holden  that  they  should 
riot  know  Him."  So  the  consciousness  of 
Adam  and  Eve  in  relation  to  some  of  their 
bodily  functions  may  have  been  held  from  them 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  63 

for  a  time,  and  held  in  love,  as  were  the  eyes 
of  the  two  disciples. 

Everyone  possesses  faculties  that  are  dor- 
mant and  unrealized  until  occasion  calls  them 
forth.  How  often  men  awake  to  self-knowl- 
edge and  astonish  both  themselves  and  the  com- 
munity by  their  power.  Is  it  likely  that  our 
first  parents  were  at  once  fully  and  clearly 
aware  of  all  their  physical  and  mental  capabil- 
ities? Is  it  not  far  more  probable  that  they 
came  to  the  consciousness  of  their  faculties 
gradually  and  as  necessity  called  them  into 
exercise? 

Prior  to  the  fall  there  had  been  no  desire 
for  parentage.  After  the  fall  and  after  God 
had  driven  our  first  parents  from  the  garden 
of  Eden,  we  read:  "Adam  knew  his  wife  and 
she  conceived  and  bare  a  son."  Would  God 
have  said  that  if  Adam  had  known  Eve  in  the 
same  sense  before?  Again,  after  the  fall  and 
after  banishment  from  Eden,  God  said  to  the 
woman,  as  a  part  of  His  curse  upon  her:  "Thy 
desire  shall  be  to  thy  husband."  Would  God 
have  said  that  if  her  desire  had  been  so  in 
Eden? 

Our1  view  is  confirmed  by  Romans  11 :32i 
"For  God  hath  shut  up  all  unto  disobedience, 
that  He  might  have  mercy  upon  all."  It  is 
the  most  important  verse  in  a  very  remarkable 
chapter.  Those  who  sympathize  with  our 


64          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

critic  (and  they  include  Bible  students  gener- 
ally) on  account  of  their  fundamental  error  in 
relation  to  the  propagation  of  the  race  before 
the  fall,  have  given  to  that  verse  either  no  in- 
terpretation or  a  very  feeble  one.  Do  we  not 
see  in  that  verse  that  God,  who  foresaw  man's 
fall,  withheld  from  our  first  parents  the  desire 
of  any  expression  of  their  reproductive  facul- 
ties, and  even  held  them  unconscious  of  those 
faculties,  until  such  a  time  as  their  fall  would 
become  a  voluntary  act  and  fact?  How  many 
ways  has  God  of  shutting  up  all  unto  disobe- 
dience? He  has  only  one  way,  and  that  is  by 
shutting  them  up  to  be  the  offspring  of  volun- 
tarily disobedient  first  parents.  Any  other 
way  would  make  God  responsible  for  the  diso- 
bedience committed,  while  now  every  man's 
moral  act  is  a  free  act  for  which  he  is  account- 
able. And  God  has  only  one  way  that  we  know 
about  of  showing  the  mercy  of  salvation  to  all, 
which  is  by  the  equal  application  to  all  of  the 
atonement  of  Jesus  Christ,  "who  died  once  for 
all." 

In  view  of  this  interpretation,  how  pertinent 
the  exclamation  of  the  apostle  that  immediately 
follows,  unaccountable  on  any  other  theory, 
"O  the  depth  of  the  riches,  both  of  the  wisdom 
and  knowledge  of  God;  how  unsearchable  are 
His  judgments  and  His  ways  past  finding 
out." 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  65 

But  why  pain  in  childbirth?  You  assume 
that  it  is  one  of  the  results  of  sin,  but  that  is 
only  an  assumption.  I  answer  that  it  is  sim- 
ply and  solely  because  God  said:  "In  sorrow 
thou  shalt  bring  forth  children."  True,  He 
could  not  say  it  before  the  fall,  but  in  view  of 
our  welfare  it  was  necessary  for  Him  to  say 
it  after  the  fall  if  He  would  continue  the  race. 
The  reason  underlying  it  is  not  difficult  to  dis- 
cover. Just  as  the  ground  was  cursed,  not  for 
man's  sin,  but  for  man's  sake;  not  for  his 
punishment,  but  for  his  development;  so  pain 
should  attend  childbirth  for  the  same  reason, — 
not  as  the  payment  of  a  penalty,  but  for  the 
perfection  of  virtues.  As  cost  and  estimated 
value  are  closely  related,  so  the  act  of  bring- 
ing a  child  into  the  world  through  pain  would 
make  it  a  serious  and  solemn  thing,  and  would 
ensure  for  the  child  in  its  long  period  of  help- 
lessness the  tender  love  and  the  unwearied  sac- 
rifices which  its  condition  should  demand.  A 
curse  so  laden  with  blessing  both  to  parent 
and  child  is  worthy  of  our  God. 

In  Eve's  "Farewell  to  Paradise,"  Milton, 
with  the  exquisite  touches  of  Fancy's  pencil, 
represents  Eve  as  leaving  all  the  attractions  of 
Eden  with  comparative  tranquillity  except  her 
nuptial  bower  which  she  had  beautified  with  gar- 
lands formed  and  placed  by  her  own  hands. 
But  error  may  be  made  to  appear  in  array  as 


66          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

beautiful  as  the  garb  of  truth.     Indeed,  truth 
is  not  dependent  upon  its  vesture. 

Oh,  it  is  so  hard  to  get  away  from  the  pre- 
judices imbibed  from  our  childhood.  We  are 
so  in  the  habit  of  looking  upon  the  elements 
of  the  curse  which  followed  the  fall  as  being 
altogether  penal  that  we  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  they  contain  less  of  hurt  than  of  healing. 

12.  "If  'like  simple  child  he  disobeyed,*  was 
Adam  responsible?" — s.  j.  M. 

We  do  not  treat  a  child  who  understands  our 
commands  as  irresponsible  when  disobedient  to 
them.  The  command  alone  makes  disobedience 
wrong  and  the  disobedient  guilty  and  subject  to 
just  correction.  Adam  had  the  command,  which 
he  understood.  The  accompanying  threat  of 
death  in  case  he  disobeyed  could  have  no  special 
deterrent  effect,  for  he  knew  nothing  of  death, 
never  having  seen  it.  It  could  mean  little 
more  to  him  than  the  threat  of  a  whipping 
would  mean  to  a  child  who  had  never  seen  or 
felt  any  kind  of  punishment.  And  yet,  as  law 
implies  a  penalty,  it  was  necessary  to  state 
the  penalty  which  infraction  of  the  law  would 
incur. 

It  may  be  pertinent  to  add  in  this  connection 
that  such  disobedience  not  only  receives  but 
deserves  mercy,  without  detracting  from  grace, 
to  the  extent  to  which  the  creature  limitations 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  67 

may  plead.  When  I  think  of  man  in  Eden  as 
God's  child,  with  powers  of  perception  limited, 
with  capacity  for  enjoyment  or  suffering  al- 
most unlimited,  and  of  the  palliating  circum- 
stances attending  his  sin,  I  think  I  can  see  that 
such  conditions  should  create  in  the  loving  heart 
of  God  a  sense  of  obligation  such  as  He  has 
implanted  in  me  toward  my  disobedient  child, 
— the  feeling  that  it  is  my  duty  as  a  parent 
to  do  all  in  my  power  to  bring  about  reconcilia- 
tion and  a  mutual  relation  of  love  and  loyalty. 
I  cannot  say,  therefore,  what  often  I  have 
heard  said,  that  God  was  under  no  obligation 
to  provide  salvation  for  fallen  man  on  condi- 
tions within  his  power  to  meet.  I  do  not  affirm 
that  God  was  under  such  obligation,  but  I  do 
know  that  love  compels,  that  limitations  plead, 
that  creation  implies  responsibility,  and  that 
parental  and  filial  relations  impose  solemn  and 
unceasing  obligations.  From  the  death  pen- 
alty, incurred  as  Adam  incurred  it,  it  seems 
to  me  that  not  only  mercy  but  justice  required 
some  measure  of  relief  if  relief  were  possible. 

13  "  'A  higher  type  of  man  He  wills.9  A 
different  type,  I  admit;  is  the  reformed  drunk- 
ard a  higher  type  than  the  abstainer?" 

— j.  w.  A. 

No,  the  reformed  drunkard  is  not  a  higher 
type  of  man  than  the  abstainer;  but  the  well 


68  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

born,  well  bred,  virtuous,  God  fearing,  hope 
inspired  man  of  to-day  is  a  higher  type  than 
the  man  in  Eden  who  fell  before  his  first  temp- 
tation. Adam  had  innocence  and  so  has  the 
sweet  babe  that  lies  in  the  cradle;  but  God's 
man  now  has  virtue,  which  is  goodness  under 
trial.  Adam  was  obedient  when  it  was  easier 
to  be  so  than  otherwise ;  but  God's  man  now 
is  obedient  from  choice  in  the  face  of  tempta- 
tion. Adam  had  love,  but  it  was  weak  com- 
pared with  that  loyal,  tested  love  which  binds 
the  believing  heart  to  God  through  long  years 
and  still  cries  out:  "Whom  have  I  in  Heaven 
but  Thee  and  there  is  none  upon  the  earth  that 
I  desire  besides  Thee."  The  Christian,  the 
man  whose  faculties  are  all  developed,  yet  di- 
rected and  controlled,  is  the  highest  type  of 
man. 

Having  created  us  with  varied  capabilities, 
God  would  develop  and  perfect  them.  Having 
given  to  us  the  faculty  of  love,  He  would  call 
it  forth  in  expressions  unknown  and  impossible 
in  Eden.  He  would  call  this  faculty  into  exer- 
cise in  expressions  of  sympathy,  compassion, 
and  pity.  This  can  be  done  by  virtue  of  the 
curse  which  God  pronounced  upon  man.  In  a 
word,  it  can  be  done  through  the  discipline  of 
suffering.  Even  Christ,  who  came  into  the 
world  on  moral  equality  with  Adam,  was  "made 
perfect  through  suffering."  Either  these 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  69 

words  are  meaningless  or  the  faultless  Son  of 
God  received,  as  "the  man  of  sorrows,"  some 
higher  consciousness,  some  additional  qualifica- 
tion, some  increase  of  light,  or  a  more  sympa- 
thetic relation  to  humanity,  that  made  Him  a 
higher  type  of  High  Priest  and  Savior  than 
He  otherwise  could  have  been.  And  God 
would  bring  us  through  suffering  into  fellow- 
ship with  Christ's  suffering.  He  would  have 
us  partakers  of  Christ's  character — "grace  for 
grace."  There  is  possible,  therefore,  in  this 
world  a  nobler  manhood  than  Eden  knew.  If 
the  sinless  second  Adam  received  benefit  from 
suffering,  then  He  became,  to  the  extent  of 
the  benefit  thereby  secured,  superior  to  the  sin- 
less first  Adam  in  pure  but  painless  Eden.  It 
is  our  privilege  to  bear  the  likeness,  not  of  the 
first,  but  of  the  second  Adam. 

14.  "7  must  protest  against  the  doctrine  ex- 
pressed in  the  words: 

'Slight  is  the  hurt,  the  blessing  great, 
Of  all  who  toil  beneath  the  curse/ 

There  can  be  no  comparison  between  the  curse 
and  the  blessing.  The  coming  of  sin  into  the 
world  is  an  irreparable  calamity.  Our  world 
is  poorer  and  heaven  will  be  poorer  because 
there  is  forever  the  stain  of  sin  upon  the  great 
white  throne.  All  the  palliating  things  which 


70  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

may  be  spoken  will  not  efface  the  fact  that 
God's  universe  without  the  curse  upon  it  made 
necessary  by  the  fall  would  have  possessed  a 
luster  of  which  we  can  never  so  much  as  dream. 
.  .  .  The  glory  of  God  will  always  be  less  be- 
cause of  the  human  choice  of  evil.  Had  man- 
kind been  always  good,  God's  glory  in  the  end 
would  have  been  immeasurably  greater.  .  .  . 
"  'High  noon's  estate  and  heaven's  pure  bliss!9 
are  indeed  priceless  heritages,  but  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  think  that  they  would  not  be  dim  glories 
beside  the  joys  which  would  have  grown  out  of 
'Eden's  bower'  had  man  been  true  to  the  higher 
destiny  which  God  would  have  given  him.  .  .  . 
The  benefits  which  may  accrue  to  men  through 
the  existence  of  evil  can  never  in  all  eternity 
equal  the  sum  total  of  curse.  .  .  .  To  the  man 
who  has  felt  upon  his  soul  the  stain  of  sin, 
heaven  itself  will  be  a  state  of  modified  happi- 
ness. To  such  a  man,  there  is  an  infinite 
tragedy  in  the  fact  that  'through  sin's  dark 
portals  Jesus  comes,'  and  the  good  which  He 
brings  in  His  bloody  train,  indispensable  as 
it  is  to  sinful  men,  is  purchased  at  an  unneces- 
sary cost  and  is  less  than  would  have  accrued 
to  men  had  there  been  no  sin?  .  .  .  My  con- 
ception is  that  in  creating  such  a  world  as  this 
one,  God  had  regard  to  the  end.  Rather  than 
deprive  a  race  of  finite  beings  whom  He  might 
create,  of  the  blessings  of  fellowship  with  Him- 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  71 

self,  even  though  He  foresees  the  certain  dis- 
aster and  must  be  satisfied  with  a  second  best 
•world,  God  permits  even  the  -fall  and  'the  Lamb 
slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world  and  the 
final  universe  wherein  there  is  darkness  -forever 
for  a  part  of  His  race,  for  by  so  doing  He 
gives  eternal  life  to  some,  and  this,  even  under 
the  modified  light  of  such  a  heaven,  is  better 
than  no  life  at  all  for  any" — G.  w.  o. 

My  brother,  I  appreciate  your  full  and  frank 
criticism  of  one  of  the  central  doctrines  of  my 
poem.  You  will  pardon  me  if  I  find  excep- 
tional pleasure  in  attempting  to  answer  it.  I 
like  its  ring  of  positiveness.  Where  others 
question,  you  dissent.  Instead  of  expressing 
doubt  of  my  view,  you  state  clearly  your  own 
opposite  view.  It  is  all  the  more  interesting 
since  it  reflects,  as  you  tell  me,  the  teaching 
which  you  received  at  the  seminary,  which  I 
know  to  be  one  of  the  leading  theological 
schools  of  a  great  Church. 

The  view  which  you  have  so  well  expressed 
I  once  entertained,  but  the  more  I  tried  to  de- 
fend it  the  less  firmly  I  held  it.  At  length  I 
gave  it  up  altogether.  I  found  many  reasons 
urging  a  radical  change  of  opinion.  The  poem 
contains  some  of  them.  It  justifies  God  in 
making  evil  possible  by  the  creation  of  free 
beings  because  He  foresaw  that  He  could  make 
good  use  of  evil  in  the  event  of  its  existence. 


72          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

That,  I  think,  is  a  better  justification  than 
yours — that  "eternal  life  for  some,  with  dark- 
ness forever  for  many,  is  better  than  no  life 
at  all  for  any."  Your  view  places  God  on  the 
losing  side  in  a  serious  struggle. 

The  poem  shows  that  the  curse  that  follows 
the  introduction  of  evil  into  the  world  is  for 
man's  "sake" ;  that  is,  the  curse  in  all  its 
features  and  effects  in  man's  condition  outside 
of  Eden  is  a  blessing.  Instead  of  saying  that 
the  curse  which  God  pronounced  upon  the  race 
was  "made  necessary  by  the  fall,"  I  should  say 
that  it  was  necessary  to  make  it  possible  for 
God  to  continue  the  race,  and  to  continue  it 
in  hope,  after  the  fall.  And  this  is  a  most 
important  distinction.  It  helps  to  solve,  in- 
deed it  solves,  the  so-called  "mystery  of  suf- 
fering." Your  view  makes  the  common  ills  of 
life  penal;  infants  are  treated  as  sinners  be- 
cause they  suffer. 

The  curse,  involving  toil,  pain,  death,  and 
their  attendant  sorrows,  as  we  know  them,  is 
in  no  sense  or  degree  the  punishment  of  Adam's 
sin  or  of  our  sin.  The  penalty  which  our  first 
parents  incurred  was  not  suspended  but  exe- 
cuted. Christ,  as  the  second  Adam,  suffered 
the  punishment  of  the  first  Adam's  sin.  But 
for  love's  intervention  the  race  would  have  ended 
then  and  there.  We  have  no  relation  to  the 
original  law  given  to  Adam  nor  to  its  penalty. 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  73 

In  defining  the  ordinary  sufferings  of  life 
as  the  "natural  consequences  of  sin,"  the  theo- 
logians are  in  error.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see 
that  the  eating  of  the  forbidden  fruit  on  the 
part  of  Adam  could  not  cause  the  earth,  as  a 
natural  consequence,  to  bring  forth  "thorns 
and  thistles."  A  violation  of  the  moral  law 
could  not  so  affect  the  physical  world.  But 
in  view  of  the  purpose  of  God  in  continuing  the 
race  in  the  consciousness  of  His  love  and  favor, 
He  transformed  the  character  of  universal  na- 
ture. As  the  doom  of  the  serpent  was  not  a 
natural  consequence  of  sin  but  by  the  direct 
word  and  power  of  God,  so  the  curse  of  toil, 
pain,  and  death  pronounced  upon  man  did  not 
arise  naturally  from  his  disobedience  but  came 
by  the  arbitrary  pronouncement  of  Jehovah. 
Every  tear  or  trial  which  I  am  called  to  suffer 
in  infancy  or  age,  proclaims  the  love  of  my 
heavenly  Father.  The  sweat  of  toil,  the  pains 
of  motherhood,  the  sorrows  of  infancy,  the  in- 
firmities of  years,  and  the  pangs  of  dissolution 
are  a  part  of  the  so-called  curse  made  possible 
by  man's  sin,  found  necessary  for  man's  sake. 

The  sense  of  guilt,  the  feeling  of  condemna- 
tion, and  the  fear  of  punishment  are  natural 
consequences  of  sin ;  but  they  are  no  part  of 
the  curse  pronounced  after  the  fall  and  have 
no  connection  with  the  common  ills  of  life, 
which  none,  whatever  their  goodness,  can 


74          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

escape.  The  curse  made  proper  by  man's  first 
sin,  ushered  in,  under  new  conditions  and  laws 
no  longer  arbitrary  as  in  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
the  present  administration  of  God  in  this  world. 
It  was  prompted  by  infinite  wisdom  and  justice 
and  love  alike.  When  it  shall  have  served  its 
purpose,  it  shall  pass  away,  as  did  the  former, 
and  ultimately  the  "new  heavens  and  the  new 
earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness"  shall  ap- 
pear. But  for  the  present  the  hostile  forces 
in  nature,  the  opposing  wills  of  men  and  of 
devils,  and  all  the  sufferings  which  we  experi- 
ence in  common  with  each  other  are  made  to 
minister  to  our  improvement  and  highest  de- 
velopment, i 

Whatever  the  creeds  may  contain  or  the 
schools  may  impart,  the  poem  teaches,  as  does 
the  Bible,  that  God  makes  evil  His  own  and  His 
human  creature's  servant ;  that  the  evil  which 
He  cannot  overrule  to  His  praise  He  restrains ; 
that  evil  is  made  to  contribute  to  man's  knowl- 
edge, strength,  and  hope;  that  it  is  made  the 
occasion  of  the  birth  of  modesty,  genius,  and 
the  desire  for  the  propagation  of  the  race ;  that 
it  is  made  the  basis  of  the  highest  type  of  char- 
acter and  the  loftiest  expression  of  love ;  and, 
above  all,  that  it  is  made  the  occasion  of  the 
coming  of  our  Lord — the  sublimest  possible 
manifestation  and  revelation  of  God  to  His 
universe. 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  75 

To  confirm  more  fully  our  teaching,  although 
truth  when  seen  in  its  relations  is  so  self-evi- 
dencing that  it  needs  no  oath  and  little  argu- 
ment, your  attention  is  called  to  a  few  con- 
siderations not  contained  in  the  poem. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  look  upon  God 
with  any  feeling  of  pity,  or  compassion,  or 
commiseration,  which  your  view  would  seem  to 
make  necessary.  My  nature  demands  a  God 
who  cannot  be  defeated  or  surprised  or  disap- 
pointed in  the  least  degree.  I  could  not  wor- 
ship as  God  a  being  whose  glory  I  could 
tarnish  or  the  luster  of  whose  universe  I  could 
diminish.  My  view  of  God  compels  me  to  be- 
lieve that  His  blessedness  and  glory,  like  His 
natural  attributes  and  moral  perfections,  are 
infinite. 

I  cannot  believe  that  God  would  or  could 
create  a  being  able  to  thwart  or  countervail 
His  will.  Turn  your  eyes  to  the  incomparable 
splendor  of  a  midnight  sky, — worlds  upon 
worlds,  planets  and  suns  and  systems  and  con- 
stellations and  clusters,  range  upon  range, 
some  of  them  fixed  centers  of  astonishing  mag- 
nificence, others  swinging  in  their  orbits  and 
revolving  upon  their  axles,  all  of  them  moving 
with  mathematical  precision  throughout  the 
ages  and  symbolizing  the  glory  of  God  who  is 
the  central  Sun  of  all.  Behold  Him,  in  His 
triune  capacity,  counseling  over  one  further 


76  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

and  perhaps  final  creation  and  then  couching 
His  conclusion  in  the  lofty  words:  "Let  us 
make  man.  in  Our  image,  after  Our  likeness." 
His  purpose  in  such  a  creation,  evidently,  was 
not  to  obscure  His  glory,  but  to  enhance  it.  It 
was  not  to  dimmish  the  luster  of  His  universe, 
but  to  give  it  a  higher  purpose  and  to  extend 
the  sphere  of  its  appreciation.  It  ought  to  be 
inconceivable  that  God,  who  sees  the  end  from 
the  beginning,  would  create  a  being,  who  by 
the  exercise  of  given  powers  could  place  an 
ineradicable  "stain  upon  the  great  white 
throne."  God's  throne  was  never  whiter  than 
it  is  now.  The  disobedience  of  a  child  cannot 
tarnish  the  parental  escutcheon. 

The  history  of  Joseph  is  a  most  illuminating 
incident,  illustrating  God's  overruling  provi- 
dence. It  was  when  Jacob  was  blinded  by  his 
tears  that  he  said:  "All  these  things  are 
against  me."  There  is  not  a  fact  or  a  feature 
in  the  story  of  Joseph  that  God  has  not  caused 
to  reveal  His  goodness  and  glory  to  a  degree 
beyond  what  we  can  conceive  as  possible  under 
other  and  happier  circumstances.  The  world 
is  richer  for  the  grievous  incident  of  that  early 
day.  Now  if  God  could  take  the  quarrel  of 
a  patriarchal  family  and  use  it  in  all  the  de- 
tails of  its  development  for  the  enrichment  of 
the  race  and  the  clearer  revelation  of  Himself, 
could  He  not  use  the  fall  of  Adam  in  all  the 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  77 

details  of  its  development  for  the  good  of  the 
universe  and  the  fuller  manifestation  of  His 
glory?  And  if  He  could  thus  use  it,  He  surely 
would  do  so. 

The  Bible  abundantly  teaches  that  the  world 
in  its  completed  history  must  fulfill  the  purpose 
and  pleasure  of  God  in  its  creation.  Even  in 
his  deepest  sorrow  Job  was  inspired  to  say  of 
God:  "But  He  is  in  one  mind  and  who  can 
turn  Him?  And  what  His  soul  desireth,  even 
that  he  doeth."  (Job  23:13.) 

The  psalmist,  contemplating  the  glory  of 
God,  declared :  "But  our  God  is  in  the  heavens  ; 
He  hath  done  whatsoever  He  pleased."  (Psalm 
115:3.) 

Through  the  mouth  of  His  prophet  Isaiah, 
God  says:  "My  word  that  goeth  forth  out 
of  My  mouth  shall  not  return  unto  Me  void,  but 
it  shall  accomplish  that  which  I  please,  and  it 
shall  prosper  in  the  thing  whereto  I  sent  it." 
(Isaiah  55:10.) 

Nebuchadnezzar,  after  a  most  humiliating 
experience,  his  understanding  having  returned 
to  him,  worshiped  the  Most  High,  and  ex- 
claimed: "He  doeth  according  to  His  will  in 
the  armies  of  heaven  and  among  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth,  and  none  can  stay  His  hand  or 
say  unto  Him — what  doest  thou."  (Daniel 
4:35.) 

The   apostle  Paul  says:     "For  our  citizen- 


78          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

ship  is  in  Heaven  from  whence  also  we  wait 
for  a  Savior,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  shall 
fashion  anew  the  body  of  our  humiliation,  that 
it  may  be  conformed  to  the  body  of  His  glory, 
according  to  the  working  whereby  He  is  able 
to  subject  all  things  unto  Himself."  (Philip- 
pians  3:20,  81.) 

These  and  numerous  other  passages  like  them 
do  not  sound  as  if  God  were  defeated  by  "the 
human  choice  of  evil"  or  that  its  introduction 
into  the  world  is  an  "irreparable  calamity"  or 
that  "God's  glory  and  the  luster  of  His  uni- 
verse are  diminished"  by  the  creature  He  has 
made,  or  that  "He  is  compelled  to  be  satisfied 
with  a  second-best  world." 

My  dear  critic,  called  to  preach  the  un- 
searchable riches  of  Christ,  the  view  which  you 
present  does  not  honor  God,  and  whatever  fails 
to  honor  Him  is  false.  The  gospel  which  you 
are  commissioned  to  proclaim  lacks  nothing;  it 
makes  a  man  whole ;  it  meets  the  world's  need 
and  meets  it  fully.  Heaven  will  not  be  a  state 
of  "modified  happiness."  It  will  be  as  much 
superior  to  Eden  and  its  possibilities  as  the 
heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth,  and  man 
himself,  in  intellectual  power  and  moral  expan- 
sion, as  much  superior  to  man  in  Eden  as  a 
giant  athlete  is  superior  physically  to  one 
whose  muscles  are  pulp  and  whose  bones  are 
gristle. 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  79 

There  have  been  rebellion  and  war  in  Heaven, 
but  God's  will  is  accomplished  there.  The 
prayer  which  our  Lord  gave  to  His  disciples 
declares  it  and  that  prayer  is  not  impossible 
of  fulfillment  here.  "Thy  will  be  done  on  earth 
as  it  is  in  Heaven,"  is  not  given  us  to  offer 
doubtfully  but  in  faith.  He  who  will  not  give 
His  glory  to  another  will  not  suffer  it  to  be 
dimmed  by  another.  Tragic,  indeed,  the  com- 
ing of  Christ  and  bloody  His  train,  but  in  be- 
ing "wounded  for  our  transgressions,"  God's 
glory  did  not  suffer,  for  "by  His  stripes  we  are 
healed." 

In  the  joy  of  triumph  over  evil,  in  the  bless- 
ings of  a  gracious  overruling  Providence,  in  the 
hope  of  a  blissful  immortality,  and  in  the 
revelation  of  God's  mercy  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ,  whose  suffering  our  SALVATION  has 
made  necessary,  it  is  not  unreasonable  that  we 
should  bear  some  scars  of  our  victorious  con- 
flict. But  our  hurt,  figuratively  speaking,  is 
the  ache  of  a  bruised  heel  compared  with  the 
joy  of  crushing  the  serpent's  head.  Moreover, 
our  hurt  is  for  a  moment,  while  our  felicity  is 
eternal.  Listen  to  Paul  (2  Corinthians  4: 
8-18),  "pressed  on  every  side,  yet  not  straight- 
ened ;  perplexed,  yet  not  unto  despair ;  pursued, 
yet  not  forsaken;  smitten  down,  yet  not  de- 
stroyed; always  bearing  about  in  the  body  the 
dying  of  Jesus,  that  the  life  also  of  Jesus  may 


80          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

be  manifested  in  our  body.  .  .  .  Wherefore  we 
faint  not,  .  .  .  for  our  light  affliction,  which 
is  for  the  moment,  worketh  for  us  more  and 
more  exceedingly  an  eternal  weight  of  glory." 

Brother,  I  submit  that  what  you  condemn 
in  my  poem  Paul  seems  to  commend.  As  be- 
tween the  somber  colors  of  your  plaint  and  the 
rainbow  hues  of  Paul's  picture,  I  cannot  hesi- 
tate to  choose. 

I  conclude  this  defense  with  the  observation 
that  the  curse  contained  the  first  promise  of 
the  Savior.  Therefore,  I  continue  to  sing: 

"Slight  is  the  hurt,  the  blessing  great, 
Of  all  who  toil  beneath  the  curse, 
Which  shines  so  gemmed  with  promise  bright 
It  gilds  with  hope  the  universe." 

15.  "On  reading  your  lines: 

'If  all  were  right  and  nothing  wrong, 
The  softest  heart  would  turn  to  stone/ 

I  thought,  if  they  are  true,  what  a  stony- 
hearted place  heaven  must  be,  and  what  a  stony- 
hearted being  God  must  be" — s.  j.  M. 

If  I  were  to  say  that  occasion  is  everything 
in  love,  while  you  would  know  that  it  is  not 
strictly  correct,  still  you  would  not  dispute  it. 
Occasion  does  not  change  one's  nature,  nor 
does  it  create  the  capacity  for  loving,  but  it  is 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  81 

so  related  to  love's  expression  that  without  it 
love  has  little  value.  So  of  my  lines, — while 
not  literally,  they  are  poetically  true. 

If  we  have  the  faculty  of  love  we  must  have 
the  objects  of  love.  If  in  pity,  compassion, 
and  sacrifice,  love  finds  its  highest  expressions, 
then  there  is  required  those  things  or  condi- 
tions that  call  forth  pity,  compassion  and  sac- 
rifice. It  follows,  therefore,  that  our  first 
parents  could  neither  have  known  nor  developed 
love  in  its  highest  forms  in  Eden. 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  God  in  this  con- 
nection? From  a  part  we  know  the  whole; 
from  the  finite  we  get  a  conception  of  the  in- 
finite; to  know  God  we  study  ourselves,  made 
in  His  image  and  likeness.  As  He  is  love  in 
the  dominating  quality  of  His  character,  it  is 
the  demand  of  His  nature  that  there  shall  be 
beings  to  love,  and  He  creates  them.  They, 
being  "flesh,"  assaulted  by  temptation;  "earth- 
ern  vessels,"  frail,  brittle,  perishable,  easily 
shattered,  furnish  the  occasion  for  that  highest 
demand  of  His  nature — the  infinite  compassion, 
the  infinite  sacrifice,  the  gift  of  His  only  be- 
gotten Son. 

The  tendency  and  general  effect  of  trouble 
is  to  soften  the  heart.  The  first  serious  illness 
of  my  eldest  child  at  the  age  of  eight  years, 
was  the  occasion  of  the  revelation,  not  only  to 
him  but  to  myself,  of  how  much  I  loved  him. 


82  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

How  impressive  the  refrain  in  the  107th  Psalm, 
"Then  they  cried  unto  the  Lord  in  their  trouble 
and  He  delivered  them  out  of  their  distresses." 
Trouble  does  soften  the  heart.  That  is  the 
rule.  Now  and  then  we  seem  to  find  an  excep- 
tion. Apparently  Job's  wife  was  one.  That 
which  should  have  softened  her  heart  seems  to 
have  hardened  it.  If  she  had  been  what  a  wife 
always  should  be,  Job  would  have  found  large 
compensation  for  his  suffering  in  the  richer  dis- 
plays of  her  love,  and  he  would  have  said  to 
her:  "My  dear,  I  had  no  reason  to  doubt  your 
love  in  the  years  of  our  prosperity,  but  your 
heart  was  a  stone  then  compared  to  what  I  have 
found  it  in  this  period  of  my  sorrow ;  you  have 
been  touched  with  the  feeling  of  my  infirmities." 
All  that  my  poem  says  about  the  occasions  or 
means  of  softening  the  heart  may  be  true  and 
heaven  not  be  a  stony-hearted  place,  for  heaven 
is  cognizant  of  earth,  and  its  inhabitants  are 
those  who  have  witnessed,  experienced,  and  re- 
lieved poverty,  weakness,  and  loneliness.  It 
occurred  to  me  that  my  line,  "The  softest  heart 
would  turn  to  stone,"  might  be  too  strong,  but 
remembering  that  God,  in  speaking  to  His 
prophet  Ezekiel  (35:26)  in  deliberate  prose 
called  the  heart  "stony,"  I  concluded  that  in 
poetry  it  might  be  called,  relatively  and  meta- 
phorically, under  certain  conditions,  stone. 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  83 

I  do  not  teach  that  a  life  of  righteousness 
hardens  the  heart,  but  that  the  tears  of  sorrow 
soften  it  and  awaken  within  it  tenderness,  sym- 
pathy, benevolence,  compassion,  pity,  and  sac- 
rifice,— love  in  its  highest  possible  expressions. 

16.  "Is  it  true  that, 

'We  dare  not  choose,  we  do  not  know, 
What  cup  to  drink,  what  voice  believe?' ' 

— s.  J.  M. 

In  2  Corinthians  11:13,  14,  Paul  speaks  of 
"false  apostles,  deceitful  workers,  'fashioning 
themselves  into  apostles  of  Christ ;  and  no  mar- 
vel, for  even  Satan  fashioneth  himself  into  an 
angel  of  light."  "Devils  soonest  tempt,  re- 
sembling spirits  of  light."  So  much  for  the 
uncertain  voice. 

Now,  how  about  the  cup?  We  have  drank 
some  cups  (some  experiences)  that  we  have 
taken  most  reluctantly,  simply  because  we  had 
to  take  them,  and  afterwards  have  thanked 
God  for  them.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have 
found  that  the  most  coveted  potions  ever 
pressed  to  human  lips  have  proved  only  a  sweet 
poison  whose  effects  have  filled  the  future  with 
regret. 

The  popular  feeling  on  this  point  I  think  is 
expressed  in  the  following  fugitive  lines: 


84  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

"It  ain't  so  far  from  right  to  wrong,  the  trail  ain't 

so  hard  to  lose; 
There's  times  I'd  almost  give  my  horse  to  know 

which  one  to  choose; 
There  ain't  no  signboards  on  the  road  to  keep  you 

on  the  track. 
Wrong's  sometimes  white  as  driven  snow  and  right 

looks  awful  black. 

"I  don't  set  up  to  be  no  judge  of  right  and  wrong 

in  men, 
I've  lost  the  trail  sometimes  myself — I  may  get 

lost  again; 
And  if  I  see  some  chap  who  looks  as  though  he'd 

gone  astray, 
I  want  to  shove  my  hand  in  his  an'  help  him  find 

the  way." 

17.  "Is  it  likely  that  there  would  be  the  ab- 
sence of  samples  of  repentant  angels  if  God 
provided  for  their  salvation?" — J.  w.  A. 

That  angels,  more  or  less  of  them,  have  fallen 
from  their  original  pure  estate  and  that  God 
has  left  them  in  hopeless  revolt  is  the  almost 
universal  belief  of  Christendom.  This  belief 
is  never  opposed  and  is  seldom  questioned. 
Such  general  agreement  in  a  matter  of  so  much 
importance  should  have  a  solid  foundation. 
But  has  it  any  basis  either  in  revelation  or  rea- 
son? 

It  is  well  to  remember  that  the  Bible  was  not 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  85 

written  for  angels  but  for  men,  and  is  largely 
limited  in  its  teaching  to  what  most  vitally  con- 
cerns men.  Therefore,  samples  of  repentant 
angels  or  full  and  explicit  statements  concern- 
ing their  redemption  or  repentance,  would  not 
be  expected. 

We  may  argue,  however,  redemption  for  an- 
gels from  various  considerations.  First,  from 
the  fact  that  there  is  no  conceivable  advantage 
in  their  not  being  redeemed.  Second,  the  view 
that  God  provided  for  the  pardon  and  salvation 
of  angels  honors  Him  in  the  highest  degree,  and 
whatever  honors  God  most  is  most  likely  to  be 
true.  Third,  from  the  nature  of  God,  revealed 
as  delighting  in  mercy.  Would  He  be  likely  to 
miss  what  would  seem  to  be  the  best  of  all  op- 
portunities for  displaying  it? 

Fourth,  from  the  fact  that  He  showed 
His  mercy  to  man  with  a  promptness  which 
amounted  to  haste,  which  was  in  perfect  har- 
mony with  His  mercy-loving  character. 

Fifth,  from  His  impartiality.  His  ways  are 
represented  as  being  equal.  Angels  and  men 
being  equally  His  creatures :  why  should  He  be 
supposed  to  pass  by  one  and  save  the  other? 
If  partiality  be  a  blemish  in  the  character  of 
an  earthly  parent,  can  it  be  a  virtue  in  our 
Heavenly  Father? 

Sixth,  from  the  fact  that  as  finite  beings,  un- 
able to  see  the  full  import  of  their  acts  or  to 


86  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

weigh  the  consequences  of  disobedience,  angels 
deserved  mercy  to  the  extent  to  which  their  lim- 
itations might  plead. 

Seventh,  from  the  absence  of  any  reason  why 
"the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world"  could  not  save  them.  I  would  not  like 
to  doubt  God's  ability  to  redeem  them,  and 
conceding  His  ability,  I  could  not  doubt  His 
willingness  to  do  so. 

Eighth,  from  the  fact  that  the  angels  are 
"ministering  spirits,"  rendering  to  each  of  us 
a  tender  and  helpful  service.  (Hebrews  1:14.) 
May  not  the  basis  of  this  sympathetic  relation 
be  found  in  the  fact  that  they  have  sinned,  suf- 
fered, and  been  saved  themselves? 

Ninth,  from  the  consideration  shown  to  fallen 
angels,  especially  the  chief  of  them,  who  had 
access  to  heaven  and  met  with  the  "sons  of 
God"  on  more  than  one  occasion.  His  presence 
there  was  not  rebuked.  Indeed,  God  honored 
him  with  conversations  upon  a  very  important 
topic  and  indulged  him  in  a  way  that  was  very 
painful  to  Job,  involving  the  loss  of  his  prop- 
erty, the  death  of  his  children,  the  reproach  of 
his  friends,  and  the  keenest  bodily  suffering. 
It  may  be  that  God  did  not  welcome  him,  but 
He  permitted  his  approach,  heard  his  charge 
and  challenge,  let  down  the  bars  of  the  hedge 
about  Job  .(which  Satan  never  could  break 
through),  and  as  the  sequel  shows,  used  him  to 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  87 

the  advantage  of  sufferers  to  the  end  of  time. 
Tenth,  from  the  words  of  Jesus  (St.  John  10: 
16),  "And  other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not  of 
this  fold;  them  also  I  must  bring,  and  they 
shall  hear  my  voice;  and  they  shall  become  one 
flock,  one  shepherd."  The  Church  has  never 
found  Christ's  "other  sheep."  Oh,  yes,  her 
preachers  and  teachers  have  claimed  to  find 
them  and  have  said,  as  if  there  could  be  no  doubt 
about  it,  that  Christ  was  addressing  Jewish 
converts  and  that  the  other  sheep  were  Gentiles. 
They  forget  that  St.  Paul  says  (1  Corinthians 
12:13),  "In  one  spirit  were  we  all  baptized  into 
one  body,  whether  Jews  or  Greeks,  whether 
bond  or  free."  They  forget,  also,  that  with 
reference  to  believers  in  their  relation  to  Christ 
Paul  says  (Colossians  3:11),  "There  cannot  be 
Greek  and  Jew,  circumcision  and  uncircumci- 
sion,  barbarian,  Scythian,  bondman,  freeman." 
Christ  does  not  regard  our  outward  distinc- 
tions, and  to  say  that  He  referred  to  the  Gentile 
world  as  His  other  sheep  who  should  hear  His 
voice  would  be  no  more  true  than  to  say  that 
He  referred  to  the  as  yet  uncalled  and  uncon- 
verted Jews.  As  sheep  all  these  human  classes 
belong  to  this  fold.  Still  He  has  "other  sheep 
which  are  not  of  this  fold."  Who  are  they  if 
they  are  not  the  fallen,  yet  redeemed,  angels? 
This  interpretation  gives  significance  to  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  portions  of  the  teaching  of 


88  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

our  Lord,  rendered  unworthy  of  Him  and  so 
worse  than  meaningless  through  the  error  that 
God  passed  by  the  angels  to  redeem  man.  That 
man,  as  is  often  claimed,  will  be  able  to  touch 
a  higher  note  in  the  heavenly  song  than  angels 
can  ever  reach  is  altogether  fanciful.  Angels 
and  men  will  sing  the  same  song  in  sweet  ac- 
cord. 

Eleventh,  from  Revelation  12:7-12:  "And 
there  was  war  in  heaven ;  Michael  and  his  angels 
going  forth  to  war  with  the  dragon;  and  the 
dragon  warred  and  his  angels,  and  they  pre- 
vailed not,  neither  was  their  place  found  any 
more  in  heaven.  And  the  great  dragon  was  cast 
down,  the  old  serpent,  he  that  is  called  the  Devil 
and  Satan,  the  deceiver  of  the  whole  world; 
he  was  cast  down  to  the  earth,  and  his  angels 
were  cast  down  with  him.  And  I  heard  a  great 
voice  in  heaven  saying,  Now  is  come  (in  heaven) 
the  salvation,  and  the  power,  and  the  kingdom 
of  our  God,  and  the  authority  of  His  Christ; 
for  the  accuser  of  our  brethren  is  cast  down 
which  accuseth  (hath  accused)  them  before  our 
God  day  and  night.  And  they  overcame  him 
because  of  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  because 
of  the  word  of  their  testimony;  and  they  loved 
their  lives  not — even  unto  death.  Therefore 
rejoice,  O  heavens,  and  ye  that  dwell  in  them. 
(But)  Woe  for  the  earth  and  for  the  sea,  be- 
cause the  Devil  is  gone  down  unto  you,  having 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  89 

great  wrath,  knowing  that  he  hath  but  a  short 
time." 

There  is  nothing  figurative  in  this  language, 
nothing  difficult  to  understand.  No  historical 
statement  could  be  plainer  or  more  definite.  It 
is  obscure  only  when  seen  through  the  mists  of 
prejudice  or  misconception.  If  the  victorious 
angels  in  heaven  overcame  Satan  because  of  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb  and  the  word  of  their  testi- 
mony, then  it  follows  that  they  overcame  there, 
as  we  do  here,  and  sustain  the  same  relation  to 
the  Redeemer  which  we  hold,  belonging,  as  we 
do,  to  His  redeemed  flock. 

It  is  evident  that  the  greater  portion  of  the 
angels,  if  not  all  of  them,  who  fought  against 
the  dragon  had  known  sin,  had  been  redeemed 
by  the  sacrificial  suffering  of  the  Son  of  God, 
and  by  faith  shown  by  faithfulness  had  accepted 
that  sacrifice  to  their  salvation;  otherwise  how 
could  it  be  said  of  them  as  a  whole  that  they 
overcame  because  of  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  and 
because  of  the  word  of  their  testimony? 
Throughout  the  universe,  and  forever,  the  con- 
ditions of  salvation  are  the  same  and  unalter- 
able. 

Twelfth,  from  the  words  of  St.  Paul  (Ephe- 
sians,  3:14,  15),  "For  this  cause  I  bow  my 
knees  unto  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
of  whom  the  whole  (every)  family  in  heaven 
and  earth  is  named."  No  one  can  reasonably 


90       ;   THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

deny  that  this  passage  may  be  given  an  inter- 
pretation consistent  with  the  theory  of  angelic 
redemption.  How  beautiful  the  thought  that 
every  morally  accountable  creature  in  God's 
universe  belongs  to  God's  family,  full  provision 
having  been  made  for  all  the  members  to  form 
one  household  of  faith,  united  in  fellowship  and 
called  after  one  name. 

Thirteenth,  from  various  passages  of  Scrip- 
ture, found  especially  in  the  Revelation  of  St. 
John  the  Divine,  by  means  of  which  we  are  per- 
mitted to  look  as  through  windows  into  the 
completed  fold  and  to  see  of  whom  it  is 
composed.  We  find  there  the  Savior  and  the 
saved,  men  and  angels  engaged  without  a  dis- 
cordant note  in  the  same  worship,  the  redeemed 
giving  ascriptions  of  praise  to  the  Redeemer. 

We  do  not  wish  to  deny  that  the  unfallen 
angels,  if  there  are  such,  may  be  forever  asso- 
ciated with  the  redeemed  as  Christ  Himself 
is  associated  with  them.  They  could  be  in- 
cluded provisionally  in  the  redemption  of  fallen 
angels,  as  the  later  provision  of  mercy  to  men 
extends  to  the  unborn  and  to  infants. 

It  may  be  thought  by  some  that  this  subject 
has  no  importance  to  us  that  is  either  essen- 
tial or  practical.  But  is  it  nothing  to  know 
that  Christ  died  not  only  for  me,  but  for  sin- 
ners everywhere?  Is  it  nothing  to  be  able  to 
interpret  consistently  portions  of  Scripture 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  91 

generally  considered  difficult  to  understand? 
Is  it  nothing  to  honor  God  in  the  highest  de- 
gree possible  to  our  conception?  Is  it  noth- 
ing that  in  Christ  angels  and  men  are  united 
by  the  strongest  of  all  bonds  in  one  vast  and 
precious  brotherhood?  Indeed,  the  subject  is 
invested  with  the  highest  interests  of  the  king- 
dom of  God — its  complete  triumph  among 
men,  angels,  and  moral  beings  everywhere,  its 
infinite  and  everlasting  glory  in  every  portion 
of  God's  boundless  universe. 

18.  f'Does  not  the  fact  of  life  being  under 
law  imply  probation?" — j.  c. 

Yes,  in  the  sense  of  trying,  testing,  and  prov- 
ing ;  in  its  application  to  novitiates ;  as  we  see  it 
in  Church,  state,  school  and  home;  and,  in 
some  measure,  in  connection  with  the  divine  ad- 
ministration. Being  under  law  implies  proba- 
tions rather  than  probation. 

It  is  the  theological  probation — the  one, 
single,  temporal,  all-determining  probation  as 
taught  by  the  Church — that  I  regard  as  a 
myth.  By  "life  forever  under  law"  I  mean 
that  man  (and  all  other  moral  creatures)  will 
be  forever  under  God's  moral  discipline  or 
government.  That  government  implies  a  Su- 
preme Lawgiver,  capable  subjects,  and  perfect 
law.  The  subjects  must  have  understanding, 
conscience,  and  free  will.  The  law,  to  be  per- 


92  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

feet,  must  be  appropriate,  intelligible,  and 
present  influencing  motives.  These  elements 
are  essential  to  God's  moral  administration, 
and  where  any  one  of  them  is  lacking  there 
cannot  be  ideal  moral  government.  Young 
children,  idiots,  and  lunatics,  not  having  the 
understanding  to  perceive  the  rule  of  con- 
duct or  the  conscience  to  feel  its  obligations, 
are  not  able  to  obey  it  and,  therefore,  are  not 
its  subjects.  Now  if  beyond  the  grave  there 
is  to  be  a  continuation  of  moral  government, 
it  must  retain  its  essential  elements,  carrying 
there,  as  it  does  here,  hope  and  opportunity  to 
its  subjects.  > 

I  have  been  taught  from  my  boyhood  that 
the  offer  of  divine  grace  is  limited  to  this  life; 
that  here  is  my  only  day  of  trial;  that  my 
choice  in  this  single  stage — this  brief  moment 
of  my  existence — is  final  and  must  determine 
my  eternal  destiny  for  weal  or  woe;  that  a 
failure  now  is  a  failure  without  remedy  or 
relief  forever.  The  theological  probation  ter- 
minates at,  often  before,  death,  when  if  I  have 
not  chosen  wisely,  however  brief  may  have 
been  the  period  of  my  accountability,  irre- 
spective of  my  temperament,  environment,  or 
faulty  training,  the  law  under  which  I  live 
and  by  virtue  of  which  I  have  hope  will  exe- 
cute its  irrevocable  sentence,  cutting  me  off 
forever  from  all  possibility  of  virtue  or  hope 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  93 

of  benefit  to  be  derived  from  the  clear  view 
of  truth  which  shall  come  when  the  veil  of 
the  flesh  and  the  present  accidents  of  my  being 
are  taken  away. 

From  such  teaching  my  soul  revolts.  I  be- 
lieve that  it  contradicts  reason,  lacks  the  con- 
firmation of  Scripture,  and  libels  the  character 
of  God.  As  an  accountable  being,  I  am  under 
a  beneficent  moral  government,  having  hopeful 
opportunity.  This  is  true  of  me  here.  Moral 
being,  moral  government,  hopeful  opportunity, 
are  logically  related.  Now  is  there  any  evi- 
dence that  I  shall  not  be  a  moral  being  under 
moral  government  in  the  world  to  come?  Then 
there,  as  here,  opportunity  must  complete  the 
trinity.  If  I  am  to  remain  forever  under  law, 
it  follows  as  the  shadow  follows  the  substance 
that  I  must  be  able  to  keep  that  law — let  us 
hope  better  there  than  here,  being  free,  per- 
haps, from  bodily  infirmities  and  prejudicial 
conditions. 

So  far  as  we  know,  there  is  nothing  in  death 
than  can  destroy  or  change  any  faculty  of  the 
soul.  It  loses  nothing,  either  in  its  character 
or  powers,  in  its  passage  through  the  portals 
into  the  beyond.  It  is  true  of  the  soul's  cas- 
ket, and  true  of  only  that  part  of  us,  that 
"there  is  no  work,  nor  device,  nor  knowledge, 
nor  wisdom  in  the  grave."  The  eye  loses  its 
vision,  the  foot  its  swiftness,  and  the  hand 


94  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

its  cunning.  Any  other  or  more  extended 
application  of  this  text  is  a  perversion  of  its 
meaning.  The  soul  retains  its  knowledge,  its 
activities,  its  intellectual  and  moral  percep- 
tions, its  moral  sense,  and  its  powers  of  im- 
provement and  progress.  The  fact  of  life  be- 
ing forever  under  law  implies,  not  probation 
as  theologically  understood,  but  eternal  hope 
and  boundless  privilege. 

But  I  am  told  that  eternal  hope  is  impossi- 
ble; that  hope  is  founded  on  reasonable  expec- 
tation of  fulfillment;  that  if  it  is  impossible  to 
realize  the  thing  looked  for,  it  is  not  hope, 
and  if  it  is  realized,  it  is  then  no  longer  hope 
but  reality.  Well,  all  this  may  be  true  of 
commodities,  but  not  of  character.  You  may 
have  your  fill  of  money  but  not  of  morals. 
Hope  is  a  faculty  of  the  living  soul,  as  inde- 
structible as  the  soul  itself.  While  it  con- 
stantly realizes,  it  continually  anticipates  the 
perfection  which,  being  infinite,  can  never  be 
compassed. 

Do  you  say  that  our  first  parents  in  Eden 
were  under  law  and  yet  on  probation?  True, 
they  were  under  law  and  on  such  a  probation 
as  I  have  admitted,  but  not  such  as  I  have 
described  as  the  theological  probation.  They 
might  eat  of  all  the  trees  in  the  garden  ex- 
cept one ;  partaking  of  that,  they  should  surely 
die.  To  vindicate  His  law  God  sent  His  Son 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  95 

in  their  humanity  and  He  died  that  they  might 
not  die.  Their  existence  was  continued,  and 
driven  out  of  Eden,  they  were  not  deprived 
of  hope  and  promise  and  possibility. 

19.  "/  cannot  get  away  from  the  thought 
that  if  Adam's  fall  was  upward  and  forward, 
then  every  transgression  of  God's  command 
must  in  its  nature  be  the  same" — p.  A.  c. 

"If  'from  evil  gain,'  it  is  not  best  to  be  al- 
ways good.  Too  good?  If,  on  the  whole,  it 
was  better  for  Adam  to  disobey  than  to  obey, 
why  not  for  us  all?" — jr.  w.  A. 

Either  I  have  carelessly  written  my  poem 
or  my  critics  have  not  carefully  read  it. 

Adam's  disobedience  was  not  in  itself  a 
blessing.  No  disobedience  of  God's  command 
can  be  "in  its  nature"  upward  or  forward. 
Sin  in  the  abstract  is  always  friendless.  But 
better  than  Adam  is  Christ,  and  conformity 
to  His  likeness  is  the  loftiest  character.  The 
righteousness  which  is  of  faith  transcends  the 
righteousness  which  is  of  the  law.  The  reve- 
lation of  hope  in  Christ  and  of  heirship  with 
Christ  and  of  the  immortality  brought  to  light 
in  the  gospel  are  more  than  the  law  of  works 
could  ever  reveal.  And  these  are  ours  be- 
cause God  made  man's  sin  the  occasion  of 
their  provision. 


96  THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

I  teach  no  more  than  Paul,  nor  differently 
from  him,  when  he  says  (Romans  5:£0), 
"Where  sin  abounded  grace  did  abound  more 
exceedingly" ;  and  the  conclusion  which  he 
draws  is  the  very  opposite  of  that  which  my 
critics  seem  to  think  is  logical.  "Shall  we 
continue  in  sin,  therefore,  that  grace  may 
abound?  God  forbid."  (Romans  6:1.) 

20.  "The  closing  verses  of  your  poem  are 
very  agreeable,  presenting  as  they  do  the  com- 
plete victory  of  good  over  evil.  But  does  that 
victory  signify  the  actual  salvation  of  every 
moral  being  in  God's  universe?  1  hope  it  does. 
While  I  am  not  inclined  to  oppose  the  pleasing 
view,  I  am  not  able,  at  present,  to  adopt  it." 

G.    T. 

My  brother,  fully  appreciating  your  deli- 
cately expressed  criticism,  your  superior 
scholarship,  and  the  modesty  characteristic  of 
scholarship,  I  will  state  some  of  the  reasons 
why  I  firmly  believe  in  the  ultimate  destruction 
of  all  evil  by  the  complete  subjection  of  all 
evildoers. 

This  is  the  only  way  of  ending  evil  in  God's 
universe,  except  by  annihilation,  which  has  no 
foundation  either  in  science  or  revelation.  It 
is  not  by  the  subjugation  of  evil  doers  (as  is 
often  taught),  which  leaves  evil,  though  in- 
active, still  existing,  but  by  their  subjection. 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  97 

Complete  subjection  is  in  the  Bible ;  forcible 
subjugation  is  not  there.  There  is  a  broad  dis- 
tinction between  "subjection"  as  the  term  is 
used  in  the  Scripture,  and  "subjugation"  as 
we  understand  it.  The  subjected  are  so  wil- 
lingly; the  subjugated  are  so  unwillingly. 
The  subjected  are  so  by  their  full  consent; 
the  subjugated  are  so  against  their  consent. 
The  subjected  are  voluntarily  submissive;  the 
subjugated  are  sullenly  rebellious.  God 
brings  moral  creatures  into  glorious  subjection 
to  Him ;  He  does  not  eternally  subjugate 
them.  He  does  not  conquer  by  the  exercise 
of  superior  force.  He  has  servants,  but  no 
slaves.  He  has  victors  through  Him,  but  no 
victims  under  Him.  Eloquent  as  the  thought 
may  seem  to  be,  God  never  puts  His  foot  on 
the  neck  of  an  evildoer  as  a  giant  might  sup- 
press a  weak  and  fallen  foe.  God  subjects 
His  enemies  by  instruction,  discipline,  train- 
ing, influence,  persuasion,  constraint,  and 
restraint.  He  "destroys"  His  enemies  by 
causing  them,  through  the  use  of  these  means, 
without  coercion,  to  put  away  their  enmity 
and  become  His  friends. 

Hell,  no  less  than  heaven,  is  a  moral  neces- 
sity. Virtue  and  vice  must  produce  their 
logical  results.  These  results  are  not  arbi- 
trary, but  consequential.  Men  suffer  hell 
here,  and  they  will  suffer  it  hereafter.  Men 


98          THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

enjoy  heaven  here  and  they  will  enjoy  it  here- 
after. Harmony  with  God  brings  bliss.  Op- 
position to  God  brings  woe.  This  is  true  here 
and  will  be  in  all  worlds.  Heaven  and  hell, 
therefore,  are  not  so  much  localities  as  condi- 
tions, though  they  may  be  spoken  of  as  we 
speak  of  places.  God's  law  is  a  stern  reality 
and  it  is  the  demand  of  a  righteous  moral  gov- 
ernment that  its  sanctions  shall  be  executed. 

But  does  a  righteous  administration  de- 
mand the  endless  and  hopeless  torment  of  the 
sinner  dying  in  his  sins,  with  no  possibility 
of  repentance  and  pardon  beyond  the  grave? 
As  the  curse  which  was  pronounced  upon  man 
after  his  fall  was  not  an  expression  of  God's 
vindictiveness,  but  for  man's  sake,  so  is  ev- 
erything that  is  related  to  the  curse.  It 
follows  that  temptation,  trial,  suffering,  pun- 
ishment, and  hell  are  all  elements  in  God's  re- 
demptive plan.  Each  has  a  lofty  purpose — 
a  purpose  worthy  of  our  God. 

God  uses  means  for  the  salvation  of  the  sin- 
ner here;  may  He  not  use  means  for  the  same 
end  hereafter?  Punishment,  or  chastisement, 
is  used  as  a  means  of  salvation  in  this  age ;  may 
it  not  be  used  for  the  same  purpose  in  some 
other  age  or  ages?  In  the  administration  of 
an  infinitely  good  Being  punishment  cannot  be 
vengeful;  it  must  be  beneficent.  If  the  law  of 
God  is  given  for  the  moral  creature's  good 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  99 

("the  law  is  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  us  to 
Christ"),  then  its  penalty  cannot  defeat  its  ob- 
ject, which  it  would  do  if  punishment  were  end- 
less and  hopeless. 

Those  who  hold  that  the  wicked  who  leave  this 
world  unforgiven  will  be  subjected  to  pro- 
nounced endless  torture  declare  that  "sin  is  an 
infinite  evil."  But  how  can  an  infinite  quality 
belong  to  a  finite  act  done  by  a  finite  being? 
The  Commentator  Barnes,  in  his  notes  on  Job, 
22:15,  says:  "There  is  no  intelligible  sense  in 
which  it  can  be  said  that  sin  is  an  infinite  evil." 

It  is  said  frequently  that  the  sinner  becomes 
fixed  in  sin  and  incapable  of  repentance,  even 
though  otherwise  repentance  were  possible.  The 
fact  and  force  of  habit  are  admitted,  but  that 
any  habit  of  the  will  can  become  fixed  in  this 
embryo  life  is  an  assumption  without  proof ;  in- 
deed, it  is  preposterous.  Those  who  discourse 
on  the  fixedness  of  character  here  as  determin- 
ing unalterable  moral  destiny  hereafter  should 
remember  that  even  in  Christian  countries  one 
third  of  the  people  die  before  they  have  passed 
far  into  a  state  of  moral  accountability,  when 
there  can  be  no  possibility  of  a  fixed  habit  of 
any  kind. 

Every  man  who  goes  out  of  this  world,  to 
whatever  place  or  condition,  carries  with  him 
all  the  faculties  which  he  possesses  here.  He 
will  have  his  will,  which  will  be  free.  He  will 


100        THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

retain  his  powers  of  faith  and  hope  and  love. 
Annihilate  any  one  of  these  faculties  or  render 
any  one  inoperative  by  taking  away  its  objects, 
and  a  different  being  is  punished  there  from  the 
one  that  sinned  here. 

Admit  that  this  little  province  of  God's 
boundless  empire  is  in  revolt;  that  it  is  "the 
place  of  Satan's  seat" ;  it  is  plainly  seen  that 
God  does  not  abandon  and  leave  it  in  the  hands 
of  a  usurper.  It  is  His  world  still,  and  to  re- 
deem it  He  has  given  the  costliest  ransom  of 
which  He  was  capable.  Does  not  this  infinite 
outlay  demand  a  complete  recovery?  The  sac- 
rifice must  be  justified  by  the  end  achieved. 
Moreover,  if  God,  having  done  His  best,  fails, 
it  will  be  because  He  has  undertaken  a  task  for 
which  He  is  not  equal  or  that  there  is  a  task 
not  undertaken  because  beyond  His  ability. 
Neither  horn  of  this  dilemma  could  I  possibly 
accept. 

If  death  ends  hope ;  if  this  life  is  a  probation 
which  terminates  with  our  mortal  breath;  if 
the  moral  law,  carrying  with  it  the  opportunity 
of  obeying  it  and  the  hope  of  its  rewards,  con- 
tinues not  beyond  the  grave,  then  there  is  no 
escaping  the  conclusion  that  God's  ways  are 
not  equal  and  that  His  effort  to  save  men  is  a 
dismal  failure.  We  see  the  strong  oppressing 
the  weak ;  some  reveling  in  luxury  all  their 
days,  others  living  and  dying  in  abject  pov- 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  101 

erty;  some  scarcely  ever  knowing  pain,  others 
enduring  lifelong  suffering;  some  mentally  en- 
dowed to  read  the  rocks  or  harness  the  light- 
ning or  tell  the  distances  of  the  stars,  others  to 
whose  simple  and  feeble  minds  come  no  visions 
of  beauty,  no  revelations  of  worth,  no  pleasing 
fancies,  no  gleams  of  hope;  some  born  and 
reared  amid  delightful  surroundings,  blessed 
with  freedom  and  nature  and  music  and  art, 
others  existing  in  obscurity,  pining  in  darkness, 
chained  in  dungeons — crawling,  shrinking, 
shriveling  things,  a  part  of  the  putrefaction 
in  which  they  lie  and  more  wretched  than  the 
vermin  by  which  they  are  slowly  consumed.  If 
this  be  the  end  or,  worse  still,  the  prelude  to  a 
deeper  gloom,  God  cannot  be  acquitted  of  par- 
tiality. 

Go  into  the  slums  of  our  large  cities  and  see 
the  multitudes  who  are  born  with  the  single 
talent  of  mere  existence,  with  little  of  hope  and 
less  of  opportunity.  Their  home  is  a  dingy 
basement  or  a  suffocating  attic.  They  know 
nothing  of  the  being  and  goodness  of  God. 
They  never  hear  hymn  or  sermon  or  prayer. 
Their  employment  is  in  cellars  and  tubes  and 
tunnels  and  mines.  They  seldom  see  clear  sun- 
light and  rarely  breathe  pure  air.  Their  en- 
vironment is  their  shroud.  Their  substance, 
their  very  existence,  is  given  to  those  who  al- 
ready have  ten  talents.  Bound  hand  and  foot, 


102        THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

they  are  in  outer  darkness,  and  their  self-ut- 
tered dirge,  unheard,  or  heard  indifferently  by 
the  rich  and  powerful,  is  weeping  and  wailing 
and  gnashing  of  teeth.  Millions  on  millions  of 
our  race  have  lived  and  died  under  such  or 
worse  conditions.  There  is  no  salvation  ex- 
cept by  "repentance  toward  God  and  faith  in 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  yet  millions  have  died 
who  never  heard  of  Christ  as  a  Savior.  Must 
not  the  conditions  of  salvation  be  made  known 
to  them,  some  time,  somewhere,  with  the  privi- 
lege of  accepting  them?  They  yet  live. 
Whtere  are  they?  What  is  their  condition? 
Are  they  given  knowledge  and  yet  denied  hope 
and  opportunity?  What  shall  be  their  des- 
tiny? Truly,  "if  in  this  life  only  we  have  hope 
in  Christ,  we  are  of  all  creatures  the  most  mis- 
erable." 

But  this  earth  life  of  ours  is  only  a  punctu- 
ation point  of  a  sentence  of  a  paragraph  of  a 
page  of  a  chapter  of  a  volume  of  a  series  in  the 
limitless  sphere  of  our  existence.  God's  moral 
administration  must  continue.  Hope  must  sur- 
vive the  grave.  The  inequalities  of  the  present 
must  be  explained  and  righted  if  mercy  and 
justice  are  the  foundation  of  God's  throne. 

Why  God  suffered  John  to  be  beheaded  and 
Stephen  stoned  and  Cranmer  burned  while 
faithfully  engaged  in  His  service,  and  their 
murderers  to  be  applauded  and  honored,  will 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  103 

yet  be  fully  understood  and  approved.  Why 
Paul — when  he  was  Saul  of  Tarsus  and  while  he 
was  yet  breathing  out  threatenings  and  slaugh- 
ter against  the  humble  followers  of  our  Lord, 
nor  sought  nor  wished  additional  or  different 
light — was  favored  with  a  manifestation  of  the 
Savior  approaching  the  glory  of  His  appear- 
ing which  we  shall  behold  beyond  the  grave,  but 
as  yet  denied  to  all  others  will  be  fully  ex- 
plained and  justified.  God  does  not  deal  with 
His  children  unjustly.  He  uses  men  as  He 
does  events,  subordinating  all  to  the  advance- 
ment of  His  kingdom  and  the  revelation  of 
Himself.  The  working  out  of  God's  plans  are 
begun  but  not  completed  here.  "What  I  do 
thou  knowest  not  now;  but  thou  shalt  under- 
stand hereafter."  (St.  John  13:7.) 

The  angel  flying  in  the  midst  of  heaven,  hav- 
ing the  "eternal  gospel"  to  proclaim,  does  not 
at  once  preach  it  to  all  men  everywhere.  Cen- 
turies have  passed  and  yet  there  are  portions 
of  the  earth  still  dark  and  full  of  the  habita- 
tions of  cruelty.  Shall  the  generations  that 
have  gone  out  from  the  darkness  untaught 
never  hear  the  "eternal  gospel,"  never  see  the 
heavenly  light,  never  taste  celestial  bliss? 

It  will  not  be  because  God  is  too  good  or  be- 
cause He  loves  His  creatures  too  well  to  see 
them  lost  forever  that  they  will  be  finally 
saved,  but  because  some  time,  somewhere,  they 


104        THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

will  meet  the  conditions  of  salvation  which  His 
wisdom  and  justice  and  love  impose.  The  final 
choice  of  every  moral  being  in  the  universe, 
I  believe,  will  be  for  God  and  righteousness. 

When  I  find  two  classes  of  texts  that  seem 
to  teach  directly  opposite  doctrines,  only  one 
of  which  can  be  true,  I  adopt  the  class  whose 
teaching  appears  so  reasonable  that  it  ought 
to  be  true,  that  is  least  likely  to  be  the  result 
of  human  bias  or  interpolation,  and  that  has 
the  strongest  Scripture  supports.  I  then  try 
to  find  an  interpretation  of  the  other  class  that 
shall  transform  apparent  antagonism  into  act- 
ual consistency.  Such  an  interpretation  can 
be  given,  but  this  reply  will  deal  only  with  texts 
of  the  former  class. 

Isaiah  (53:11),  clearly  beholding  the  hu- 
miliation and  exaltation  of  Christ,  declares: 
"He  shall  see  of  the  travail  of  His  soul  and 
shall  be  satisfied."  Would  He  be  satisfied  in 
saving  only  a  few?  Would  He  be  satisfied  if 
one  sinner  for  whose  salvation  He  had  suffered 
were  eternally  lost?  Much  less  would  He  be 
satisfied  if  the  vast  majority  of  those  whose 
redemption  He  had  purchased  with  His  blood 
were  to  plunge  into  a  hopeless  hell,  as  May- 
flies into  flame. 

God  Himself,  in  Isaiah  45:22,  23,  says: 
"Look  unto  Me  and  be  ye  saved,  all  the  ends  of 
the  earth,  for  I  am  God  and  there  is  none  else. 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  105 

By  Myself  have  I  sworn,  the  word  is  gone  forth 
in  righteousness  and  shall  not  return,  that 
unto  Me  every  knee  shall  bow,  every  tongue 
shall  swear."  What  virtue  in  homage  ren- 
dered, or  victory  in  homage  secured,  if  it  is  not 
given  voluntarily?  What  shall  every  one 
swear  to  God  if  not  allegiance?  By  that  oath 
all  become  citizens  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
loyal  subjects  of  the  King  of  kings.  Some 
time,  before  death  or  afterward;  somewhere, 
this  side  of  the  grave  or  beyond  it,  God's  word 
sworn  by  Himself  must  be  fulfilled. 

The  apostle  Paul  (Romans  14:11),  quotes 
Isaiah  45:23  almost  verbatim:  "As  I  live, 
saith  the  Lord,  to  Me  every  knee  shall  bow,  and 
every  tongue  shall  confess  to  God."  And  we 
are  not  left  in  any  doubt  as  to  the  character 
of  the  worship  which  is  here  declared,  for  Paul, 
in  his  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  (2:9,  10,  11), 
quotes  with  some  elaboration  the  same  facts: 
"Wherefore,  also,  God  highly  exalted  Him  and 
gave  Him  the  name  which  is  above  every  name, 
that  in  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should 
bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  on  the 
earth,  and  things  under  the  earth,  and  that 
every  tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ 
is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father."  We 
submit  that  to  bow  in  the  name  of  Jesus  and 
to  confess  Christ  to  the  glory  of  God,  means 
not  coerced  but  voluntary  surrender. 


106        THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

In  1  Corinthians  15:21-28  we  read:  "For 
since  by  man  came  death,  by  man  came  also  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead.  For  as  in  Adam  all 
die,  so  also  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive. 
But  each  in  his  own  order;  Christ  the  first- 
fruits  ;  then  they  that  are  Christ's  at  His 
coming.  (When  that  shall  be  we  have  not  been 
told.)  Then  cometh  the  end  (not  the  end  of 
all  things,  but  the  end  of  Christ's  mediatorial 
reign),  when  He  shall  deliver  up  the  king- 
dom to  God,  even  the  Father,  when  He  shall 
have  abolished  all  (opposing)  rule  and  all 
(antagonistic)  authority  and  power.  For  He 
must  reign  until  He  hath  put  all  His  enemies 
under  His  feet.  (Not  in  the  sense  of  subju- 
gating butx  of  subjecting  them.)  The  last 
enemy  (last  because  He  can  use  it  longest)  that 
shall  be  abolished  (because  impersonal)  is  death. 
For  He  hath  put  all  things  in  (voluntary) 
subjection  under  His  feet;  but  when  He  saith, 
All  things  are  put  in  subjection,  it  is  evident 
that  He  is  excepted  who  did  subject  all  things 
unto  Him.  And  when  all  things  have  been  sub- 
jected unto  Him,  then  shall  the  Son  also  Him- 
self be  subjected  to  Him  that  did  subject  all 
things  unto  Him,  that  God  may  be  All  in  all.'9 
Observe  that  the  Son  is  subjected  to  the  Father. 
He  must  become  so  voluntarily  or  willingly. 
Christ's  enemies  are  subjected  to  Him.  Their 
subjection  must  be  of  the  same  kind  and  in  the 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  107 

same  voluntary  or  willing  manner,  for  the  word 
"subjected"  is  used  in  each  case,  the  same  word 
not  only  in  our  translation  but  in  the  original 
Greek.  With  the  sinner  means  are  used,  but 
they  produce  loving  surrender.  All  the  sev- 
erity which  so  many  see  in  Christ's  putting 
His  enemies  under  His  feet  disappears  before 
this  simple  and  plain  interpretation.  What 
has  Christ  been  doing  in  the  past?  He  has 
been  putting  His  enemies  under  His  feet;  that 
is,  bringing  them  into  willing  subjection  to 
Himself.  What  is  Christ  doing  now?  He  is 
putting  His  enemies  under  His  feet,  bringing 
them  into  willing  subjection  to  Himself.  And 
He  will  continue  this  work,  as  He  has  hitherto 
prosecuted  it,  not  by  force,  but  by  the  word 
of  truth,  the  influence  of  the  Spirit,  the  con- 
straint of  love,  the  ministry  of  evil,  the  exercise 
of  moral  government,  and  by  the  revelation  of 
Himself,  until  every  enemy  shall  be  brought 
into  voluntary  subjection  to  His  will  except 
death,  which  shall  be  destroyed  when,  perfectly 
satisfied  with  the  travail  of  His  soul,  He  shall 
deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  the  Father  that  God 
may  be  All  in  all.  Then,  and  not  till  then, 
when  His  triumph  is  complete,  will  His  media- 
torial reign  cease. 

We  call  attention  to  1  Peter  3:18,  19,  which 
reads :  "Because  Christ  also  suffered  for  sins 
once,  the  righteous  for  the  unrighteous,  that 


108        THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

He  might  bring  us  to  God,  being  put  to 
death  in  the  flesh  but  quickened  in  the  spirit, 
in  which  also  He  went  and  preached  unto  the 
spirits  in  prison;  which  aforetime  were  dis- 
obedient, when  the  long  suffering  of  God 
waited  in  the  days  of  Noah,  while  the  ark 
was  a  preparing."  Prejudice  and  precon- 
ceived opinions  often  give  to  some  portions 
of  God's  word  a  forced  and  inconsistent  inter- 
pretation. The  passage  under  consideration 
seems  to  be  one  of  them,  although  it  contains 
nothing  abstruse  or  difficult.  Its  statements 
are  plain,  simple,  and  direct.  Why  should  we 
teach  as  its  meaning,  that  at  the  time  when 
Noah  was  preaching  to  the  ear  of  the  antedilu- 
vians, Christ  in  spirit  was  preaching  to  their 
spirits,  which  are  now  in  prison?  Yet  this  ab- 
surd interpretation  is  the  one  that  generally 
obtains.  Is  not  the  plain  meaning  of  the  pass- 
age this — that  Christ,  between  His  death  and 
resurrection  went  in  spirit  to  the  place  of  the 
departed  spirits  of  the  antediluvians,  disobedi- 
ent in  the  days  of  Noah,  and  preached  to  them 
salvation?  He  could  tell  them  of  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  promise  and  of  His  finished  sacri- 
fice on  Calvary  for  the  conditional  salvation  of 
the  whole  world.  What  haste  He  manifested. 
He  did  not  wait  even  for  His  resurrection  to 
inform  those  souls  of  their  glorious  privilege. 
Let  us  have  the  true  meaning  of  God's  word, 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  109 

even  if  it  shatters  our  creeds  and  confirms  the 
idea  held  by  Alford  and  others  of  "a  day  of 
grace  in  Hades."  A  day  of  grace  should  be 
welcome  anywhere,  and  if  it  can  end,  that  fact 
should  be  the  saddest  in  all  the  realm  of  truth. 
As  the  Bible,  however,  is  given  us  for  this  life,  it 
does  not  emphasize  the  possibilities  of  the  fu- 
ture life.  All  its  emphasis  is  placed  most 
properly  on  the  present — not  present  life,  but 
the  present  moment.  "Behold  now  (not  to- 
morrow or  next  year)  is  the  accepted  time ;  be- 
hold now  is  the  day  of  salvation."  Yet  some 
will  wait,  and  come  and  find  to-morrow,  when 
the  morrow  becomes  the  now.  But  delay  means 
difficulty,  if  not  doom ;  loss,  if  not  to  be  lost. 
If  it  be  said  that  the  preaching  to  the  "spirits 
in  prison"  proves  nothing  concerning  an  offer 
of  grace  to  the  dead  in  general,  we  point  to 
another  statement  of  Peter  (I  Peter  4:6)  that 
is  not  limited  and  does  not  exclude  the  idea  of 
totality.  "For  unto  this  end  was  the  gospel 
preached  even  to  the  dead,  that  they  might  be 
judged  according  to  men  in  the  flesh,  but  live 
according  to  God  in  the  spirit."  This  passage 
has  been  the  despair  of  theologians  obsessed 
with  the  idea  that  there  is  no  offer  of  grace 
beyond  the  narrow  boundary  of  this  present 
life.  Surely  it  seems  to  be  obvious  that  only 
the  preaching  of  the  gospel  beyond  the  grave 
can  compensate  the  defects  and  inequalities  of 


110        THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

the  present  or  give  to  God's  judgment  of  man- 
kind the  character  of  equality  and  righteous- 
ness. 

Consider  1  John  3  :£,  "Beloved,  now  are  we 
children  of  God,  and  it  is  not  yet  made  mani- 
fest what  we  shall  be.  We  know  that  if  He 
shall  be  manifested,  we  shall  be  like  Him,  for 
we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is." 

We  are  all  children  of  God  by  creation, 
preservation,  and  redemption.  The  Israelites, 
turning  to  idols,  were  backsliding  children. 
The  prodigal  of  the  parable  was  a  prodigal 
son.  Therefore  when  John  says:  "Now  are  we 
children  of  God,"  we  think  that  he  meant,  or 
might  have  meant,  whether  churched  or  un- 
churched, baptized  or  not,  believers  or  infidels. 
When,  continuing,  he  says :  "And  it  is  not  yet 
made  manifest  what  we  shall  be,"  we  think  that 
those  words  may  be  equally  true  of  all  classes. 
He  admits  that  to  believers,  at  least,  there  will 
come  a  change  in  the  moral  character,  if  not 
in  moral  relation,  beyond  the  grave.  If  a 
change  can  occur  in  believers  after  death,  why 
not  in  unbelievers,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  their 
becoming  believers,  and,  if  so,  of  entitling  them 
to  all  the  benefits  to  which  believers  are  eligible. 

The  difference  in  men  here  in  respect  to 
moral  character  is  only  in  degree.  The  best 
are  not  altogether  good  and  the  worst  are  not 
altogether  bad.  If  the  best,  being  imperfect, 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  111 

need  and  will  have  a  true  and  transforming 
view  of  the  Savior,  why  should  such  a  vision 
be  denied  to  those  who  need  it  most?  Would 
there  be  such  varying  types  of  moral  character 
among  believers  if  all  saw  Christ  with  equal 
clearness?  Would  not  the  number  of  believers 
be  very  largely  increased  if  all  men  saw  Christ 
with  the  clearness  with  which  some  behold  Him? 
For  example,  would  not  the  vision  which  was 
given  to  Saul  of  Tarsus  produce  a  similar  effect 
in  others  to  that  which  was  produced  in  him? 
Indeed,  was  it  not  the  most  sublime  purpose  of 
that  heavenly  vision,  to  which  Saul  was  not 
disobedient  and  to  which  probably  no  man  so 
favored  would  be  disobedient,  to  emphasize  the 
truth  that  all  men  will  be  like  Christ  when  they 
come  to  really  and  truly  behold  Him? 

When  John  says:  "We  know  that  if  He 
shall  be  manifested,  we  shall  be  like  Him,  for 
we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is,"  I  can  find  no  reason 
for  limiting  it  to  a  mere  fraction  of  those  of 
whom  Christ  is  "not  willing  that  any  should 
perish,  but  that  all  should  come  unto  Him  and 
live."  If  when  Christ  shall  be  manifested,  one 
class  shall  see  Him  as  He  is,  shall  not  the  other 
class,  also,  see  Him  as  He  is?  If  that  revela- 
tion and  vision  shall  make  one  imperfect  class 
perfect,  may  it  not  have  the  same  effect  on  the 
other  imperfect  class? 

Millions  upon  millions  of  our  race  have  lived 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

and  died  without  ever  having  seen  or  even  heard 
of  Christ.  They  must  see  Him, — every  eye 
shall  see  Him,  even  they  who  pierced  Him, — 
and  shall  their  vision  of  Him  who  gave  Him- 
self a  ransom  for  all  be  without  effect? 

Isaiah  says  (45:£4),  "And  all  that  are  in- 
censed against  Him  shall  be  ashamed."  That 
shame  implies  the  desire  for  Christ's  likeness. 
No  moral  change  can  come  to  any  man,  here 
or  hereafter,  against  his  volition.  Those  who 
are  now  incensed  against  Him  shall  long  to  be 
like  Him  when  they  shall  see  Him  in  the  fullness 
of  His  splendor.  When  Christ  shall  appear 
we — all  of  us,  without  distinction — shall  see 
Him  as  He  is ;  we  shall  behold  the  King  in  His 
beauty,  and  that  beauty  shall  astonish  and  at- 
tract us;  it  shall  transfix  our  gaze  and  trans- 
form our  soul. 

For  full  confirmation  of  this  view  read  the 
110th  Psalm,  which  surely  includes  Chri&t's 
enemies  and  contains  the  clear  notes  of  Mes- 
sianic triumph.  "Ruling  in  the  midst  of  His 
enemies,  Christ  shall  stretch  forth  the  rod  of 
His  strength  and  they  shall  become  His  foot- 
stool, offering  themselves  willingly  in  the 
beauties  of  holiness,  in  the  day  of  His  power." 
All  days  are  days  of  Christ's  power,  but  that 
will  be  the  day  of  His  power  when,  according 
to  John,  He  shall  be  clearly  manifested.  Then 
all  shall  become  willingly  His  footstool,  offering 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  113 

themselves  in  the  beauty  of  unreserved  surren- 
der. They  shall  be  like  Him,  for  beholding 
His  glory,  not  as  now  through  a  glass  darkly, 
but  clearly,  face  to  face,  they  shall  be  changed 
into  ever  ascending  degrees  of  glory  by  the 
still  operative  law  of  assimilation  and  the  trans- 
forming energy  of  the  Almighty  Spirit. 

And  Satan,  also,  is  to  be  manifested.  "The 
man  of  sin  to  be  revealed"  (£  Thessalonians 
2:3)  is  not  the  Jews  as  a  people,  or  Titus,  or 
Caligula,  or  the  Pope,  or  some  representative 
of  Satan  yet  to  come,  but  Satan  himself,  whom 
"Christ  will  bring  to  naught  by  the  manifesta- 
tion of  His  presence."  We  do  not  see  Satan 
now  as  he  is,  but  he  shall  yet  be  revealed  in  all 
the  repulsiveness  of  his  real  character.  And 
when  we  see  him,  we  shall  be  astonished  and 
dismayed,  and  turn  from  him  with  inexpressible 
abhorrence.  We  shall  be  ashamed  that  ever  we 
rendered  him  any  service.  But  when  we  see  the 
Lord  Jesus  in  the  glory  of  His  Father,  we  shall 
be  ashamed  that  we  have  not  served  Him  with 
all  our  heart.  It  is  often  said  that  without 
holiness  no  man  shall  see  God,  as  if  holiness  were 
essential  to  the  sight.  The  reverse  is  true, — 
the  sight,  or  the  revelation  of  God,  being  essen- 
tial to  our  holiness.  It  is  morally  impossible 
to  see  God  without  becoming  holy.  "No  man 
cometh  unto  Me  except  the  Father  draw  him." 
"I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me." 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

This  implies  that  the  divine  manifestation  is 
first  in  order.  Saul  of  Tarsus,  without  holi- 
ness, yet  favored  with  a  manifestation  of  Jesus, 
became  holy  and  the  Savior's  most  valiant 
champion,  as  he,  above  all  others,  had  received 
the  clearest  vision.  "No  man  hath  (clearly) 
seen  God  at  any  time."  But  we  shall  see  Him ; 
we  shall  all  see  Him;  we  shall  see  him  with  a 
clearness  of  which  the  vision  of  Paul  was  only 
the  hint  and  harbinger;  we  shall  see  Him  as  He 
is,  and  the  sight  will  be  so  transforming  that 
we  shall  be  "changed  into  the  same  image." 
We  shall  be  like  Him. 

In  Romans  (8)  the  apostle  Paul,  personi- 
fying creation,  represents  it  as  unwillingly  sub- 
mitting to  the  curse  with  which  it  was  smitten 
for  man's  sake  and  impatiently  waiting  for  the 
revealing  of  the  sons  of  God,  so  mysteriously 
are  its  destinies  linked  with  man's  destiny. 
"The  whole  creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  in 
pain  with  us  ...  who  groan  within  ourselves, 
waiting  for  our  adoption."  There  is  not  a 
beast  in  the  field  or  forest,  not  a  bird  in  the  air 
above  us,  not  a  fish  in  the  sea  beneath  us,  not 
a  feature  or  particle  or  element  in  nature  that 
has  not  been  affected  by  the  transactions  con- 
nected with  Eden.  But  "creation  was  sub- 
jected to  vanity  in  the  hope  that  creation  it- 
self also  shall  be  delivered  from  the  bondage 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  115 

of  corruption  into  the  liberty  of  the  glory  of 
the  children  of  God."  As  the  whole  creation 
was  made  to  suffer  on  account  of  man  after  his 
fall,  it  shall  be  restored  to  its  primeval  per- 
fection on  man's  complete  restoration  to  the 
likeness  of  God.  John,  on  the  isle  of  Patmos, 
was  blessed  with  a  vision  of  the  full,  perfect, 
and  universal  deliverance  from  sin  and  the 
curse,  not  only  of  angels  and  of  men,  but  of 
material  creation  itself.  "And  I  saw  and  I 
heard  a  voice  of  many  angels  round  about  the 
throne,  and  the  living  creatures  and  the  elders, 
and  the  number  of  them  was  ten  thousand  times 
ten  thousand  and  thousands  of  thousands,  say- 
ing with  a  great  voice,  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that 
hath  been  slain  to  receive  the  power,  and  riches, 
and  wisdom,  and  might,  and  honor,  and  glory, 
and  blessing.  And  every  created  thing  which 
is  in  heaven,  and  on  earth,  and  under  the  earth, 
and  on  the  sea,  and  all  things  that  are  in  them, 
heard  I  saying,  Unto  Him  that  sitteth  on  the 
throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb,  be  the  blessing,  and 
the  honor,  and  the  glory,  and  the  domin- 
ion, forever  and  ever."  (Revelation  5:11-14.) 
John's  vision  shall  become  reality.  Creation 
does  not  groan  and  travail  in  vain.  There 
shall  be  new  heavens  and  new  earth,  wherein 
dwelleth  righteousness, — no  thunderbolt  of 
wrath  within  the  sky;  no  tornado  on  the  land 
or  tempest  on  the  sea ;  no  fiery  volcano  or  de- 


116         THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

structive  earthquake;  no  poisonous  reptile  or 
ravenous  beast  of  prey;  no  seed  of  thorn  or 
thistle  in  the  ground;  no  wevil  in  the  kernel, 
or  rust  on  the  stock,  or  mildew  in  the  bin;  no 
pest  to  annoy,  or  pain  to  bear,  or  death  to 
fear.  The  fair  morning  of  the  sinless  universe 
shall  be  surpassed  by  the  unclouded  splendor 
of  the  culminating  day.  The  worship  and  serv- 
ice of  God  shall  employ  every  creature  and  pre- 
vail everywhere  throughout  the  universe.  Then 
there  will  be  no  devil;  there  will  be  no  hell; 
there  will  be  no  discordant  note  in  the  universal 
anthem  of  praise  ascending  to  God  and  the 
Lamb.  I  am  glad  that  the  apostle  is  so  par- 
ticular in  mentioning  every  conceivable  place, 
and  in  embracing  and  emphasizing  by  repeti- 
tion, every  inhabitant  thereof,  for  it  must  fol- 
low that  there  is  no  location  of  despair  and 
no  despair  to  locate.  i 

To  an  unbiased  mind,  unbiased  by  creeds  and 
the  teachings  received  from  childhood,  the 
Bible,  though  often  colored  by  the  bias  of 
translators,  abounds  in  confirmation  of  the 
views  here  presented.  I  stand  by  the  old  Book, 
correctly  translated  and  rightly  interpreted, 
from  the  first  word  of  Genesis  to  the  final  Amen 
of  the  Apocalypse.  Read  without  prejudice, 
it  relieves  the  perplexity  which  is  so  often  and 
deeply  felt  concerning  the  inequalites  of  life,- 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  117 

and  justifies,  without  mystery,  God's  moral 
government  of  the  world. 

Those  who  believe  that  "everlasting"  means 
without  end  when  applied  to  future  punishment, 
should  be  consistent  enough  to  concede  that  it 
means  as  much  when  applied  to  the  gospel. 
The  everlasting  gospel  implies  everlasting  hope. 
The  gospel  and  the  punishment  will  last  while 
need  requires.  All  will  hold,  however,  that 
"He  who  knows  his  Master's  will  and  does  it 
not,  shall  be  beaten  with  many  stripes." 

It  may  be  well  to  add  a  special  word  in  rela- 
tion to  the  final  surrender  of  Satan  to  God. 
If  God  redeemed  the  fallen  angels,  as  we  be- 
lieve, Satan  is  included,  for  he  is  one  of  them. 
There  is  nothing  absurd  in  the  thought  that 
sometime  Satan  will  surrender  to  Him  whose 
authority  is  absolute  and  to  whose  supremacy 
he  is  compelled  ever  to  yield.  Even  Milton, 
representing  Satan  in  hell  in  the  midst  .of  his 
standard  bearer  and  lords  in  chief,  pictures  him 
with  deep  scars  upon  his  face,  care  upon  his 
faded  cheek,  and  signs  of  remorse  in  his  cruel 
eye. 

"He  above  the  rest 

In  shape  and  gesture  proudly  eminent, 
Stood  like  a  tower.     His  form  had  not  yet  lost 
All  her  original  brightness;  nor  appeared 
Less  than  archangel  ruined,  and  the  excess 


118        THE  MINISTRY  OF  EVIL 

Of  glory  obscured;  .  .  .  but  his  face 
Deep  scars  of  thunder  had  intrenched,  and  care 
Sat  on  his  faded  cheek;  .  .  .  cruel  his  eye,  but  cast 
Signs  of  remorse." 

That  is  poetry,  but  it  is  the  expression  of 
one  who  entertained  no  thought  of  Satan's  sal- 
vation. It  is  something,  however,  that  Milton 
pictures  him  as  showing  signs  of  remorse.  The 
apostle  James  says:  "The  devils  believe  and 
shudder."  If  that  be  true  of  them  now,  the 
time  may  come  when  they  shall  believe  and  sur- 
render. 

That  Satan  will  sometime  cease  his  active  op- 
position to  God,  either  voluntarily  or  involun- 
tarily, no  one  can  doubt.  He  has  no  posses- 
sions, no  kingdom,  and  no  authority.  His 
record  of  failure  must  be  disappointing  to  him- 
self. As  one  has  said:  "He  works  now,  not 
with  the  vigorous  inspiration  of  hope,  but  with 
the  frantic  energies  of  despair."  He  led  the 
angels  in  their  revolt,  not  to  victory  but  to 
defeat.  He  tempted  man  to  his  fall,  but  God 
interposed  and  made  that  fall  a  blessing.  He 
tempted  Christ  in  the  wilderness,  but  Christ 
proved  Himself  the  victorious  Captain  of  all 
the  warrior  host  of  God.  He  sorely  afflicted 
and  expected  to  overcome  Job,  but  Job  over- 
came him.  He  thought  he  was  doing  a  fine 
thing  when  he  got  Joseph  sold  into  Egypt  and 
the  three  Hebrew  children  cast  into  the  fiery 


REPLIES  TO  CRITICS  119 

furnace  and  Daniel  into  the  den  of  lions  and 
John  Bunyan  into  Bedford  jail,  but  soon  he 
saw  his  purpose  foiled,  and  he  has  been  sorry 
ever  since  if  at  the  present  time  he  is  capable 
of  repentance  or  regret.  It  may  be  that  since 
his  banishment  from  heaven  his  opportunities 
are  suspended  for  a  season,  for  while  he  is  very 
active  here,  he  is  said  to  be  reserved  in  chains 
under  darkness  until  a  day  of  which  God  knows 
everything,  but  of  which  we  know  nothing.  It 
may  be  that  during  the  present  dispensation 
he  is  so  bound  in  darkness  and  given  to  evil  and 
separated  from  God  that  he  is  incapable  of  re- 
pentance, but  sometime  he  will  humbly  bow  and 
confess  to  God  "in  the  name  of  Jesus  the 
Christ"  and  "to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father." 
My  conception  may  be  wrong,  but  it  seems  to 
me  that  God's  highest  glory  demands  it. 

Does  evil  ever  win  the  victory?  Does  it  not 
always,  in  the  end,  go  down  in  defeat?  When 
Zophar  said  to  Job  that  "the  triumphing  of 
the  wicked  is  short,"  he  told  the  truth,  although 
he  made  a  mistake  in  classing  Job  with  the 
wicked.  A  short  triumphing  always  spells  de- 
feat. When  God  shall  be  "All  in  All"  the  con- 
summation will  be  realized.  But  forever  the 
conditions  of  salvation  will  be  the  same  and  un- 
alterable. Jesus,  now  and  evermore,  is  the 
door  of  the  sinner's  hope  and  destiny. 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

A  preacher  had  given  his  people  a  sermon 
on  heaven.  Mrs.  M.,  a  member  of  his  flock, 
returned  to  her  home  quite  unprofited,  saying 
that  she  did  not  go  to  church  to  hear  specu- 
lations upon  what  no  one  knows  anything  about. 
She  believed  in  heaven  as  a  blessed  fact  and 
was  content  to  leave  her  future  life  with  Him 
who  is  the  Lord  of  her  present  life.  There  are 
many  Mrs.  M.'s  in  the  world. 

Another  preacher  discoursed  on  the  activities 
of  heaven.  A  worn,  weary,  overworked  woman 
listened  and  derived  no  comfort.  She  returned 
to  her  home  to  pursue  her  incessant  toil,  say- 
ing that  she  wanted  a  future  life  in  which  she 
could  sit  down  and  take  a  good,  long,  undis- 
turbed rest.  There  are  many  such  who,  having 
never  missed  a  stroke  in  the  world's  strong  cur- 
rent that  has  set  against  them,  hope  to  end 
life's  tiresome  voyage  in  a  haven  of  complete 
repose. 

There  are  others  who  think  of  the  future  life 
as  bringing  reward  for  unappreciated  and  un- 
compensated  service,  or  reunion  with  loved  ones 
beyond  the  possibility  of  separation,  or  that 

clear  intellectual  vision  which  solves  all  prob- 
123 


124      STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

lems  and  providences  and  explains  all  mysteries. 
With  many  who  have  deeply  drunk  the  cup  of 
sorrow,  the  only  thought  of  the  future  life  is 
that  it  will  be  happy,  filled  with  beauty  and 
brightness  and  fragrance  and  melody  and  joy, 
— no  tears,  no  sorrows  there.  There  are  some 
who  dismiss  the  subject  of  the  future  life  by 
saying  that  it  will  be  enough  for  them  to  be 
with  Christ,  or  that  they  will  be  satisfied  when 
they  wake  in  His  likeness. 

Dr.  Dick  has  gone  so  far  as  to  say  that  he 
believes  that  hereafter  we  shall  go  from  planet 
to  planet  as  we  now  go  from  house  to  house. 
To  those  here  who  are  not  content  to  stay  long 
in  any  one  place,  who  are  filled  with  what  is 
called  the  "wanderlust,"  a  life  "on  the  wing" 
would  be  all  that  their  heart  could  crave.  Such 
are  the  varied  notions  concerning  the  future 
life ;  and  such,  also,  is  the  indifference  regard- 
ing a  rational  view  of  the  great  hereafter. 

No  philosophy  of  the  future  life  has  ever 
been  written  and  possibly  one  never  can  be  writ- 
ten. A  study  of  it,  however,  may  be  made  in- 
teresting and  even  profitable,  for  there  is 
scarcely  any  other  subject  concerning  which  so 
many  absurd  and  stupid  notions  prevail. 

The  fact  of  the  future  life  may  be  assumed. 
It  is  the  universal  hope  and  expectation  of 
humanity,  and,  as  one  has  said,  a  universal  hu- 
man quality  is  the  assurance  of  a  universal 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE   125 

reality.  Moreover,  man's  immortality  is 
brought  to  light  in  the  Scriptures. 

One  other  fact  may  be  equally  assumed, — 
namely,  the  possibility  of  man's  constant  im- 
provement and  development.  Created  with 
mental  and  moral  powers  in  the  image  of  God, 
surrounded  with  opportunities  for  calling  these 
powers  into  exercise,  and  endowed  with  immor- 
tality, man  is  stamped  with  the  law  of  unlimited 
progress.  When  we  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
this  world  is  an  omnipotently  governed  and 
omnisciently  taught  school,  the  grand  purpose 
of  which  is  human  development,  that  moment 
life  is  a  maze,  man  is  a  mystery,  evil  is  a  rid- 
dle, God's  government  an  enigma,  and  the  uni- 
verse itself  one  vast,  unsolvable  problem;  but 
with  this  fact  in  view,  progress  becomes  a  large 
word,  teeming  with  importance  and  written  in 
letters  so  plain  that  even  he  who  runs  may 
spell  them  out. 

The  conditions  of  our  future  life  and  the 
methods  of  our  progress  there  cannot  be  as- 
sumed, and  therefore  they  challenge  our  care- 
ful study. 

We  understand  quite  clearly  the  means  of 
our  development  here,  but  we  have  very  vague 
notions  of  the  conditions  and  methods  of  our 
progress  hereafter.  We  believe  that  God  never 
changes  the  principles  of  His  administration, 
yet  we  fail  to  apply  those  principles,  as  we  have 


126   STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

learned  them,  to  the  life  that  is  to  come.  We 
know  that  reasoning  from  what  has  been  to 
what  will  be  is  a  correct  method  of  inference, 
especially  in  relation  to  God,  yet  we  limit  the 
application  of  our  conclusions  to  this  present 
state.  If  our  development  is  God's  supreme 
thought  concerning  us  in  this  world,  it  must  be 
supposed  that  our  progress  will  ever  be  in- 
cluded in  His  plans  and  that  the  conditions  of 
our  future  advancement  will  bear  some  resem- 
blance to  those  which  now  obtain. 

Upon  resemblances,  not  upon  possibilities, 
are  founded  opinions,  theories,  philosophies, 
which  command  our  faith.  Even  if  some  de- 
gree of  speculation  attaches  to  them,  they  may 
still  hold  the  mind  in  persuasion  of  their  truth. 
When,  however,  there  is  added  to  resemblances 
the  basis  of  Scripture  in  its  most  rational  in- 
terpretation, and  the  theory  itself  reflects 
beauty  upon  our  life,  upon  the  universe  signifi- 
cance, and  upon  God  honor,  all  of  which  is 
true  in  relation  to  our  present  study,  it  bears 
the  seal  of  divine  sanction  and  the  conviction 
of  its  value  is  irresistible. 

In  Genesis  2:7  we  read:  "And  the  Lord 
God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground  and 
breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life ; 
and  man  became  a  living  soul."  This  verse  is 
quoted  as  it  stands,  both  in  the  Authorized  and 
Revised  Versions,  and  there  is  no  intimation 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE       127 

that  it  reads  differently  in  any  other  transla- 
tion. The  word  translated  "life,"  however, 
should  be  rendered  "lives,"  for  that  is  its  literal 
meaning  and  is  admitted  to  be  so  by  all  biblical 
scholars,  but  the  translators,  believing  in  life 
immortal  for  the  inbreathed  part  of  man  and 
not  knowing  what  to  do  with  "lives,"  have  pur- 
posely mistranslated  the  word,  making  it  ex- 
press a  single  life  when  it  should  express  plural- 
ity. 

God  breathed  into  the  nostrils  of  the  body 
which  He  had  formed  from  the  dust  of  the 
ground  the  breath  of  lives;  and  man,  combin- 
ing the  material  and  the  spiritual,  man  as  a 
whole,  body  and  mind,  became  one  living  soul. 
What  does  this  mean?  It  must  have  a  mean- 
ing and  a  meaning  which  we  ought  to  know. 

Its  meaning  must  be,  not  abundance  of  life 
(a  construction  sometimes  given  to  the  Hebrew 
plural),  in  which  case  it  would  be  as  true  of 
the  prolific  lower  animals  as  of  man,  but  a 
living  soul,  presenting  a  succession  of  unlike 
bodies ;  a  single  life  continued  through  many 
separate  and  consecutive  lives ;  a  man,  or  living 
soul,  finding  his  discipline  and  development  and 
preserving  his  immortality  through  an  indefi- 
nite succession  of  different  yet  related  bodies, 
each  new  body  being  a  resurrection  of  the  pre- 
ceding body.  It  is  the  continuity  of  complex 
man  through  a  succession  of  different  human 


128       STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

organisms,  each  organism  being  a  more  refined 
and  delicate  vehicle  than  its  predecessor,  and 
the  period  of  the  continuance  of  each,  prob- 
ably ever  lengthening,  being  properly  termed 
a  life. 

Why  do  I  say  bodies?  Because  the  Bible 
teaches  bodily  resurrection,  and  because  a  body 
and  the  inbreathed  spirit  are  equally  essential 
in  constituting  the  "living  soul."  Neither  the 
body  nor  the  spirit  operates  apart  from  the 
other.  The  two  elements  in  union  constitute 
the  man.  '  \ 

Why  do  I  say  human  bodies?  Because  we 
must  always  belong  to  the  human  race,  however 
diverse  our  bodily  forms  may  be. 

Why  do  I  say  unlimited  succession  of  bodies  ? 
Because  God's  word,  "breath  of  lives,"  is  in- 
definite as  to  number. 

Why  do  I  say  each  body  more  refined  and 
delicate  than  its  predecessor?  Because  in  each 
succeeding  life  the  man,  or  living  soul,  has  a 
higher,  sublimer,  and  more  spiritual  purpose 
to  fulfill  than  was  possible  under  the  conditions 
of  the  former  life. 

To  illustrate  this  definition  of  man  in  his  in- 
finite progress  and  to  show  that  my  interpreta- 
tion of  the  word  "lives"  is  not  absurd  but 
highly  probable,  attention  is  called  to  some  of 
the  creatures  which  are  much  lower  than  our- 
selves in  the  scale  of  being. 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE      129 

We  all  know  that  a  caterpillar,  probably  a 
resurrection  of  the  moth,  becomes  in  its  resur- 
rection a  butterfly,  and  that  the  life  principle 
in  one  is  the  permanent  living  element  in  all. 
One  living  being  continues  in  unlike  bodies 
through  distinct  lives,  in  separate  realms.  It 
is  a  strange  yet  instructive  transformation. 
The  clumsy  and  repulsive  worm,  crawling  on  the 
earth  and  feeding  from  the  dust,  at  length 
weaves  its  own  shroud,  from  which  it  soon 
emerges  winged  and  beautiful,  flying  in  the  air 
and  nourished  by  the  nectar  of  leaf  and  bud  and 
flower.  Will  it  have  yet  other  and  higher 
forms  of  existence  in  still  loftier  realms?  We 
do  not  know,  but  our  ignorance  is  no  proof 
that  it  will  not. 

There  is  a  sluggish  grub  that  rambles  among 
the  water  plants  and  shows  a  fondness  for  the 
deep  and  shaded  bottom  of  the  pool.  The 
time  comes,  however,  when  turning  away  from 
its  companions  and  familiar  haunts,  it  finds  the 
stalk  of  some  reed  or  rush  which  it  slowly 
climbs  to  sunlight  and  air;  there,  with  a  shud- 
der, it  drops  its  body  back  to  its  former  home 
and,  as  the  dragon  fly,  spreads  its  four  gauzy 
wings  and  soars  away,  the  creature  of  a  new 
and  higher  realm.  The  one  living  soul  passes 
by  resurrection  from  a  lower  form  of  life  to 
another  that  is  higher,  and  it  can  no  more  re- 
turn to  its  former  world  than  it  can  to  its 


130      STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

former  mode  of  being.  Its  companions  see  the 
old  body,  having  legs  with  which  it  crawled, 
and  perhaps  bury  it  from  their  sight,  but  they 
do  not  see  the  new  or  resurrected  body  having 
wings  with  which  to  fly. 

In  the  progressive  life  of  what  we  come  to 
know  as  the  frog,  by  evolution  rather  than  by 
resurrection  we  find  three  clearly  distinct  lives 
and  two  widely  separated  worlds.  In  the  first 
life  of  the  frog  it  appears  as  a  small  dark 
speck  in  a  mass  of  white  jelly  that  floats  upon 
the  surface  of  the  pond.  Gradually  that 
speck,  or  egg,  absorbs  into  its  enlarging  pulpy 
form  the  glutinous  bed  in  which  it  rests.  When 
this  process  is  completed  the  spawn  life  of  the 
frog  ends  and  its  polliwog  existence  begins. 
Now  it  breathes  through  gills,  like  a  fish,  and 
has  a  tail  by  which  it  sculls  its  way  about  the 
pond  in  search  of  food.  Its  only  element  or 
world  is  water.  At  length,  however,  the  gills 
give  place  to  lungs,  the  tail  is  absorbed  in  legs 
and  its  polliwog  stage  has  come  to  an  end.  It 
now  enjoys  a  still  larger  life,  where  it  propels 
itself  in  the  water  by  means  of  its  legs  or  with 
them  climbs  the  banks,  where  it  hops  in  the 
grass,  or  sits  upon  a  log,  basking  in  the  rays 
of  the  summer  sun.  It  has  become  an  inhabit- 
ant by  turns  of  two  worlds,  the  world  of  water 
and  the  world  of  air  and  dry  land. 

Thus  we  see  even  in  these  lowest  creatures  a 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE   131 

single  life  not  only  continued,  but  developed, 
through  different  lives  in  ascending  forms,  no 
life,  in  any  one  of  them,  having  any  resemblance 
to  the  other  life  or  lives.  We  see,  also,  that 
in  every  case  the  body,  or  form  of  existence,  is 
perfectly  adapted  to  its  conditions,  and  that 
the  conditions  always  serve  the  purpose  of 
higher  progress.  i 

While  not  germane  to  my  central  thought, 
yet  I  am  constrained  to  ask,  have  these  lowly 
creatures  reached  their  limit,  or  will  they  ascend 
still  higher,  through  additional  transitions?  A 
categorical  answer  cannot  be  given  to  this  ques- 
tion. But  the  God  who  made  man,  made  them, 
and  He  made  them  for  man,  whose  nature  re- 
quires them  for  observation,  study,  and  im- 
provement. Will  man's  nature  so  change  that 
he  will  not  need,  hereafter,  diverse  forms  of  life 
below  him  as  well  as  varied  orders  of  life  above 
him,  all  adapted  to  his  wants  and  to  their  con- 
ditions ?  They  can  be  advanced  to  other  worlds 
and  in  other  worlds,  as  they  have  been  advanced 
from  one  element  to  another  in  this  world. 
There  should  be  no  call,  it  seems,  for  new  and 
original  creations  to  meet  the  wants  of  man's 
nature,  when  God  has  shown  us  that  even  here 
a  caterpillar  may  become  a  butterfly.  It  may 
be  that  God  will  promote  from  lower  to  higher 
stages  the  creatures  which  we  have  found  help- 
ful to  our  progress  in  this  world,  that  in  our 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

advance  from  life  to  life  in  worlds  to  come  we 
may  have  their  presence  and  influence  forever. 

Ever  since  Adam  and  Eve,  every  living  soul 
of  our  race  has  had  one  life,  an  embryo  exist- 
ence, prior  to  this  present  life.  The  living 
soul  of  our  former  life  is  the  living  soul  of  the 
present  life  and  will  be  of  all  our  future  lives. 
This  life,  while  it  is  a  continuation  of  our 
former  life,  is  yet  distinct  and  separate  from 
it,  and  our  next  life  will  be  a  continuation  of 
this  and  of  our  former  life  and  still  be  distinct 
and  separate  from  either. 

Our  transit  from  our  former  life  was  our 
birth,  or  resurrection,  into  this  larger  and  bet- 
ter life;  and  our  departure  from  this  life  will 
be  our  birth,  or  resurrection,  into  another  life 
of  ampler  opportunities  and  transcending  pos- 
sibilities. Thenceforth,  ascending  from  life  to 
life,  each  painless  birth  or  resurrection,  will  be 
a  grand  promotion,  while  the  body  will  undergo 
such  changes  as  shall  adapt  it  always  to  its  new 
conditions. 

Our  first  life  of  a  few  months'  duration  an- 
swered its  purpose;  this  life  of  a  few  years' 
duration  accomplishes  its  higher  object;  the 
next  life  will  achieve  its  still  sublimer  end;  so 
will  the  next  and  the  next  and  the  following, 
in  unlimited  succession. 

It  was  necessary  that  our  former  life  should 
end  in  order  to  secure  the  advantages  of  this 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE   133 

present  larger  life;  this,  too,  must  end  as  an 
essential  condition  of  the  higher  thought  and 
loftier  action  of  the  life  to  come ;  that,  also, 
must  end  for  the  same  purpose,  and  so  the  liv- 
ing soul,  to  realize  infinite  progress,  must  move 
out  and  on  and  up,  in  successive  human  embodi- 
ments, by  new  births  or  resurrections  forever. 

This  does  not  imply,  however,  that  the  tears 
of  separation  and  the  pangs  of  dissolution  are 
to  be  feared  and  felt  hereafter.  The  partial- 
ities of  the  present  and  the  pains  which  they 
occasion,  being  based  upon  physical  functions 
and  relations,  are  peculiar  to  this  procreative 
state.  Where  they  neither  marry  nor  are 
given  in  marriage,  but  all  are  as  the  angels  of 
God,  the  bonds  of  our  union  will  not  depend 
upon  earthly  kinships  or  outward  resemblances. 

In  its  essentials  only,  will  the  living  soul  pre- 
serve permanence  of  identity  or  furnish  the 
basis  of  enduring  fellowship. 

In  our  former  embryo  life  we  had  all  the 
faculties  which  we  have  now,  or  ever  shall  have, 
but  how  limited  was  their  action  and  how  un- 
conscious we  were  of  their  possession.  In  our 
present  life  we  have  come  into  consciousness  of 
many  powers  and  have  large  opportunity  for 
their  exercise;  yet  such  are  the  conditions  in 
this  world,  the  scope  of  their  action  and  develop- 
ment is  still  limited.  They  reach  out  and  find 
barriers  which  they  cannot  penetrate  and 


134      STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

boundaries  which  they  cannot  pass.  Like  a 
bird  encaged,  we  beat  in  vain  the  bars  that  en- 
close us.  With  Tennyson  we  cry  betimes : — 

"But  what  am  I  ? 
An  infant  crying  in  the  night; 
An  infant  crying  for  the  light; 
And  with  no  language  but  a  cry." 

Our  next  life  will  extend,  but  by  no  means 
complete,  the  scope  of  the  faculties  we  now  use, 
and  will  awaken  into  consciousness  faculties  of 
which  we  now  know  nothing.  While  each  suc- 
cessive life  will  enlarge  the  living  soul's  oppor- 
tunities, it  will  also  limit  them  according  to  the 
materiality  or  permissive  character  of  our 
bodies.  We  shall  remain  finite  creatures  for- 
ever. 

We  have  now  come  in  our  study,  not  through 
speculation,  but  by  reason,  resemblance,  and 
revelation,  to  a  mount  of  vision  which  com- 
mands a  broad  and  bright  horizon  whose  vaulted 
arch  is  studded  with  stars  that  flash  a  new  and 
beautiful  light.  Questions  that  have  puzzled 
scholars  here  find  solution.  Scriptures  that 
have  been  misunderstood  or  regarded  as  obscure 
are  now  luminous.  What  are  some  of  the  things 
which  we  learn? 

We  learn  that  the  living  soul  and  our  in- 
breathed spirit  are  not  synonymous.  Our 
translators  of  the  Bible  have  erred  in  using 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE   135 

the  words  "soul"  and  "spirit"  interchangeably. 
The  former  is  the  more  comprehensive  term 
for  it  includes  the  spirit  and  its  essential  body 
— the  body  which  God  is  pleased  to  give  in  the 
successive  stages  of  our  development. 

We  learn  that  we  shall  enter  into  another  life, 
as  we  entered  into  this  life,  by  birth.  I  be- 
lieve that  Christ's  words  to  Nicodemus,  "Ye 
must  be  born  again,"  express  this  great  truth 
and  do  not  refer  to  a  change  of  heart  or  re- 
generation, as  popularly  understood.  I  believe 
that  they  declare,  not  a  conditional  moral  re- 
quirement, but  an  unconditional  necessity;  and 
that  they  were  as  applicable  to  Christ  Himself 
as  they  were  to  Nicodemus  or  as  they  are  to 
us ;  for  even  He,  the  Son  of  God,  in  order  to 
come  into  this  world  as  a  revelation  of  the 
Father,  had  to  be  born  into  it  as  we  are  born 
into  it,  and  when  He  would  return  to  the  right 
hand  of  God,  He  had  to  die  and  rise — in  other 
words,  be  born  again — just  as  we  must  die  and 
rise,  or  be  born  again,  in  order  to  go  to  the 
world  in  every  way  prepared  for  us  and  to  the 
life  for  which  we  have  fitted  ourselves. 

This  application  of  Christ's  words,  contro- 
verting the  teaching  of  the  whole  Christian 
world,  should  be,  perhaps,  more  than  merely 
stated.  Note,  therefore,  that  while  John  sev- 
eral times  speaks  of  men  as  being  spiritually  be- 
gotten of  God,  he  never  refers  to  them  as  being 


136      STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

begotten  again,  or  anew,  of  God.  The  birth 
of  which  John  speaks  stands  in  contrast  with 
nothing.  He  uses  the  term  very  much  as  Paul 
uses  it  when  in  relation  to  the  conversion  of 
Onesimus,  he  says,  "Whom  I  have  begotten  in 
my  bonds" ;  or,  as  he  again  uses  it  when,  writing 
to  the  Corinthians,  he  says,  "For  though  you 
should  have  ten  thousand  tutors  in  Christ,  yet 
not  many  fathers,  for  in  Christ  Jesus  I  have 
begotten  you  through  the  Gospel" ;  or  as  Peter 
uses  it  when  he  speaks  of  God  "who  begat  us 
again  unto  a  living  hope  by  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead." 

The  term  "birth"  or  "begotten"  in  relation 
to  the  work  of  spiritual  regeneration  is  used  in 
the  Scripture  in  a  purely  symbolic  sense;  but 
the  birth  of  which  Christ  speaks  to  Nicodemus 
is  not  symbolic  but  actual;  it  is  as  real  and 
literal  as  our  birth  into  this  life,  over  against 
which  it  stands,  and  Nicodemus  so  understood 
it,  as  is  evident  from  his  question,  "How  can  a 
man  be  born  when  he  is  old?  Can  he  enter  a 
second  time  into  his  mother's  womb  and  be 
born?"  If  Nicodemus  received  a  false  impres- 
sion in  this  respect,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  Christ  would  have  corrected  it ;  on  the  con- 
trary, he  confirmed  it  by  proceeding  at  once  to 
indicate  the  nature  of  the  birth  declared,  viz., 
that  it  was  by  spiritual  and  not  by  physical 
agencies.  The  two  births  are  equally  real  and 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE   137 

stand  in  contrast  to  each  other,  each  one  the 
door  of  entrance  to  a  life  of  the  ever  living  soul. 

The  difficulty  of  Nicodemus  had  respect  to 
the  feebly  hoped-for  resurrection  and  future 
life.  Job  wrestled  with  the  same  problem  when 
he  asked,  "If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again?" 
The  only  answer  which  he  could  give  was,  "All 
the  days  of  my  warfare  will  I  wait  till  my  release 
comes."  That  would  settle  the  question,  though 
he  yearned  for  a  present  and  authoritative  an- 
swer. And  what  was  true  of  Job  in  this  re- 
spect was  equally  true  of  the  people  in  general. 
Christ,  who  knew  what  was  in  man,  in  every  man, 
knew  the  difficulty  of  Nicodemus  and  of  his 
class,  and  met  it  with  the  most  beautiful,  com- 
prehensive, and  illumining  term  ever  applied  to 
the  great  truths  of  the  hereafter, — a  term  that 
explains  death  misnamed  and  dreaded,  reveals 
the  resurrection  as  positive  and  certain,  and 
declares  the  most  welcome  fact  in  all  the  realm 
of  truth — another  life  in  another  world.  In- 
deed, in  the  words,  "Ye  must  be  born  again," 
Jesus  took  Nicodemus  to  the  gate  of  the  tomb 
and  wrote  thereon  what  he  and  all  the  world 
might  read:  "The  door  of  our  birth  into  a 
brighter  and  larger  life."  Born  into  our  pres- 
ent life,  we  must  be  born  again  to  enter  our  next 
life.  This  application  of  Christ's  words  is  not 
strained,  but  simple,  natural,  and  logical. 

We  learn  that  there  is  no  call  for  the  gener- 


138       STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

ally  supposed  intermediate  state;  that  there  is 
no  unconscious  sleep,  no  purgatory,  no  jail 
where  we  await  a  formal  trial,  and  no  disem- 
bodied spirits  looking  for  their  laid-off  caskets 
to  be  resurrected  and  returned.  Our  theolo- 
gians talk  of  disembodied  spirits,  but  there  is  no 
evidence  of  their  existence.  Professor  E.  A. 
Shafer  of  Edinburg  University  says:  "We 
cannot  conceive  of  life,  in  the  scientific  sense,  as 
existing  apart  from  matter." 

We  learn  that  the  judgment  which  approval 
or  condemnation  awaits  is  a  process — a  present 
and  continuous  judgment;  that  all  days  are 
judgment  days.  True,  we  read,  "After  death 
the  judgment";  but  that  judgment  is  not  after 
the  death  of  the  whole  human  race ;  it  follows  the 
death  of  each  individual  and  probably  consists 
of  our  just  and  proper  entrance  into  that  par- 
ticular world  that  can  serve  us  best.  But  is  not 
the  last  parable  in  Matthew  (chapter  £5)  a 
picture  of  a  single,  final,  general  judgment? 
Being  a  parable,  it  is  not  to  be  literally  inter- 
preted. It  may  be  a  symbolic  representation 
of  the  judgment  that  is  searching,  constant,  and 
universal.  It  doubtless  teaches  the  separation 
of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked.  But  are  not 
these  classes  separated  now  by  virtue  of  their 
opposite  characters?  Will  the  righteous  ever 
be  more  on  Christ's  right  hand  or  the  wicked  be 
more  on  His  left  hand  than  they  are  at  present? 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE   139 

It  does  not  require  the  pronouncement  of  a  judge 
to  separate  from  each  other  the  righteous  and 
the  unrighteous.  The  antipodal  in  character 
go  their  separate  ways. 

We  learn  what  Paul  means  when  he  says: 
"This  mortal  must  put  on  immortality."  Our 
body  is  not  immortal,  but  it  puts  on  immortal- 
ity while  it  still  remains  mortal.  How  can  this 
be  done?  The  process  can  be  explained  on 
our  theory  of  a  succession  of  births  and  an 
equal  succession  of  lives.  How  does  the  wheat 
put  on  immortality?  By  periodic  or  frequent 
resurrections,  exchanging  old  bodies  for  new 
ones.  "That  which  is  sown  is  not  the  body 
that  shall  be." 

When  a  man,  or  the  living  soul,  quits  his 
present  visible  body,  he  quits  it  forever.  He 
takes  his  new  body  from  his  dying  body,  for 
where  there  is  no  life  there  can  be  no  resur- 
rection. He  takes  his  resurrection  body  in  the 
moment  of  what  we  call  dissolution  here,  for 
Death  is  birth  and  birth  is  resurrection.  My 
present  body  is  a  resurrection  out  of  the  body 
or  external  wrapping  which,  no  longer  needed, 
was  left  behind  when  I  was  born  into  this  pres- 
ent life;  and  so  another  body  shall  be  a  part 
of  me  in  my  next  succeeding  life,  where  this 
body  would  be  as  unsuitable  as  was  the  body 
of  my  embryo  life  for  this  present  stage  of  my 
being.  Thus,  through  an  indefinite  number  of 


140       STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

new  births,  or  resurrections,  or  successive  lives, 
I  shall  put  on  the  immortality,  which  the  mor- 
tal part  of  the  living  soul  requires. 

This  is  the  only  conceivable  way  in  which 
this  mortal  can  put  on  immortality,  for  the 
resurrection  of  that  which  is  mortal  and  ma- 
terial must  still  be  mortal  and  material  or  it 
could  not  be  a  resurrection;  and  being  so,  it 
will  become  old,  like  the  former  body,  and  like 
it,  also,  will  demand  the  youth  of  a  new  birth. 
How  many  resurrections  of  mortality  immor- 
tality may  require  no  one  can  tell.  The  body 
will  become  less  gross  with  each  renewal,  and 
therefore  the  resurrections  will  become  less  fre- 
quent; but  it  is  called  "a  spiritual  body"  not 
so  much  on  account  of  its  spirituality  as  be- 
cause it  is  the  result  of  spiritual,  instead  of 
physical,  agencies. 

It  is  possible  that  the  "aura,"  which,  by 
means  of  the  Roentgen  rays,  scientists  tell  us 
they  see  departing  from  the  body  at  the  in- 
stant of  death,  is  itself  the  faintly  outlined 
expression  of  the  living  soul  in  the  life  that  fol- 
lows this  terrestrial  life. 

It  will  be  noted  that  our  view,  as  here  pre- 
sented, is  entirely  free  from  such  difficulties  as 
are  involved  in  the  absurd  theory  that  the 
resurrection  is  the  reassembling,  reclothing  and 
revivifying  of  the  dry  bones  and  scattered  dust 
of  the  world's  graveyards.  It  will  be  noted, 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE   141 

also,  that  our  view  is  analogous  to  what  we  see 
taking  place  in  some  of  the  lower  creatures. 

It  is  the  fact  of  resurrection,  not  the  man- 
ner of  it,  or  time  of  it,  or  number  of  its  occur- 
rences, that  the  Bible  clearly  teaches. 

We  learn  that  Christ's  second  coming  is  a 
gradual  and  continuous  manifestation  and  not 
a  single,  sudden,  spectacular,  and  complete 
event.  It  began  when  Mary  Magdalene  saw 
Him  through  her  tears, — the  first  to  behold 
Him  after  His  resurrection.  It  continued  to 
the  two  disciples  on  their  way  to  Emmaus,  and 
to  the  eleven  as  they  sat  at  meat  in  Galilee. 
His  very  parting  from  His  brethren  over 
against  Bethany  was  an  incident  in  His  second 
coming,  and  the  words  then  spoken,  "Lo,  I  am 
with  you  always,"  have  been,  are  now,  and  ever 
shall  be  true  in  their  continuous  fulfillment. 
Christ's  second  coming  is  a  perpetual  and  an 
increasingly  glorious  advent.  A  blind  man, 
after  an  operation  to  restore  lost  vision,  is 
not  permitted  a  full  sunburst.  Christ's  mani- 
festation to  men  is  according  to  the  power  of 
their  spiritual  appreciation.  Special  manifes- 
tations there  may  be,  as  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost, to  Saul  of  Tarsus,  and  in  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem — the  end  of  the  Jewish  state. 

His  second  coming1  is  not  like  His  first — 
with  scarred  visage,  wounded  and  bruised,  and 
having  no  beauty  that  men  should  desire  Him 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

— but  attractive  and  winsome;  He  is  the  Rose 
of  Sharon,  the  Lily  of  the  valley,  the  Fairest 
among  ten  thousand,  the  One  altogether  lovely. 
His  second  coming,  unlike  His  first,  is  not  in 
weakness,  but  in  power.  He  comes  not  as  a 
victim,  but  as  the  victor ;  not  to  make  salvation 
possible,  but  to  make  it  sure, — to  perfect  that 
which  in  His  first  coming  He  began.  .  He  comes 
to  us,  and  to  all  who  have  lived  in  this  and  in 
all  worlds,  as  the  revelation  of  the  glory  of 
the  Godhead.  He  comes  as  the  light  that 
illumines  every  man's  path  and  that  shineth 
"more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day" ;  more 
and  more,  not  only  here,  but  hereafter,  as  we 
advance 

"From  world  to  luminous  world  as  far 
As  the  universe  spreads  its  shining  wall" ; 

more  and  more  as  we  ascend  in  our  successive 
lives  toward  that  central,  mighty,  metropolitan 
orb  in  which  rises  "the  throne  itself  of  God" ; 
more  and  more  unto  "the  perfect  day"  when 
every  knee  shall  bow  and  every  tongue  confess 
to  Christ,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father; 
more  and  more  unto  that  crowning  day,  when 
all  having  been  assimilated  into  the  divine 
image  by  the  clear  vision  of  the  Savior,  His 
Kingdom  shall  be  complete  and  God  shall  be 
ALL  IN  ALL.  The  record  of  eternity  will  be 
the  progressive  and  transforming  revelation  of 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE       143 

God  the  Father  through  Jesus  Christ  His  Son. 
I  have  no  sympathy  with  the  lines  of  Bonar : 

"The  Church  has  waited  long 
Her  absent  Lord  to  see, 
And  still  in  loneliness  she  waits, 
A   friendless  stranger  she. 
Age  after  age  has  gone, 
Sun  after  sun  has  set, 
And  still  in  weeds  of  widowhood, 
She  weeps  a  mourner  yet." 

God's  children  are  not  orphans.  Christ's 
Church  is  not  a  widow,  but  a  bride  adorned  and 
joyful.  The  Lord  is  ever  present  with  His 
people.  He  is  touched  with  the  feeling  of  their 
infirmities.  He  is  in  the  midst  of  them  who 
assemble  in  His  name.  The  physical  atmos- 
phere does  not  more  surely  surround  men  than 
His  arms  enfold  them.  He  is  nearer  to  them 
than  their  breath  in  their  body,  for  in  Him  they 
live  and  move  and  have  their  being.  While 
vividly  realizing  His  presence  hovering  over 
them  and  soothing  them  more  than  the  caresses 
of  a  tender  mother's  love,  there  is  ever  a  more- 
ness  in  His  coming;  He  may  come  more 
graciously,  more  gloriously,  more  triumphantly, 
and  so  men  should  not  cease  to  pray, — "Even 
so,  come,  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly.  Amen." 

We  see  much  more  from  our  mount  of  vision ; 
more  than  we  have  time  and  space  to  name. 


144   STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

We  see  how  the  future  may  be  a  continuation 
of  the  present  and  not  altogether  out  of  har- 
mony with  it;  how  our  service  of  God  may  be 
perpetuated  in  the  service  of  His  creatures — 
the  only  way  in  which  we  can  serve  Him ;  how 
the  present  laws  of  moral  discipline  and  devel- 
opment may  always  obtain;  how  God  may  be 
our  Father  and  Christ  our  Savior  no  less  hence- 
forth than  now ;  how  hope  and  love  and  oppor- 
tunity may  survive  successive  transitions ;  how 
the  imperfectly  begun  web  of  our  existence  may 
yet  be  advanced  toward  completion  that  for- 
ever recedes ;  how  the  purposes  that  are  broken 
off  in  this  life  may  be  consummated  in  a  later 
life;  how  the  blighted  buds  of  this  dull  spring- 
time of  our  existence  may  bloom  in  infinite 
beauty  in  the  golden  summers  that  are  yet  to 
be. 

But  where  are  we  to  pass  our  numberless  and 
constantly  expanding!  lives?  Such  lives,  in- 
volving the  material,  require  locality,  habita- 
tion, distinct  yet  related,  limited  yet  enlarging 
spheres  of  action.  If  we  are  able  to  find  the 
possible  places  of  habitation,  their  very  exist- 
ence tends  to  confirm  the  truth  of  our  theory; 
indeed,  the  evidence  altogether  would  seem 
sufficient  to  establish  the  theory  as  a  doctrine. 
It  is  clear  that  we  are  passing  the  present  life 
of  our  infinite  series  on  one  of  the  smaller 
planets  of  one  of  the  minor  solar  systems — a 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE   145 

very  appropriate  starting  point  of  a  stupen- 
dous journey. 

At  the  close  of  His  last  supper  with  His 
disciples,  Jesus  said  to  them  in  substance :  Do 
not  be  anxious  about  the  future;  you  believe  in 
God  fully,  trust  just  as  implicitly  in  Me.  In 
my  Father's  house,  that  is,  in  the  illimitable 
space  which  He  occupies,  are  many  mansions, 
numberless  abiding  places ;  if  it  were  not  so, 
I  would  have  told  you,  such  is  its  importance. 
I  go,  and  you  are  grieved  in  view  of  My  de- 
parture, but  I  go  to  prepare  a  place — not  a 
permanent  abode,  not  a  final  home,  but  a  place 
— for  you.  The  many  mansions  are  for  your 
many  lives,  which  they  imply.  No  matter 
which  mansion  I  prepare  for  you  first,  or  what 
the  conditions  of  your  discipline  and  develop- 
ment there  may  be,  you  can  leave  that  to  me, 
for  I  shall  be  there;  where  I  am,  you  shall  be 
also. 

Surely  no  one  would  wish  to  take  from,  or 
add  to,  or  misrepresent  the  gracious  words  of 
Jesus,  as  full  of  comfort  as  they  are  of  in- 
struction, and  spoken  to  each  one  of  us  as 
really  as  to  those  entranced  disciples  who  sat 
at  His  feet. 

We  now  go  out  and  look  up  to  the  starlit 
sky.  What  a  scene  of  grandeur  and  magnifi- 
cence invites  our  astonished  gaze !  And  yet 
we  see  only  the  fringe  of  a  universe  that 


146   STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

stretches  in  every  direction  beyond  the  reach 
of  human  thought.  Those  brilliant  orbs, 
worlds  upon  worlds,  systems  and  constellations 
and  clusters,  that  bejewel  the  infinite  space, 
have  now  assumed  a  new  and  wondrous  mean- 
ing. While  they  declare  the  glory  of  God  and 
show  His  marvelous  handiwork,  while  they  are 
great  lights  hung  out  by  the  Almighty  hand  to 
illumine  the  realms  of  unlimited  space,  while 
they  stir  our  amazement  over  the  marvel  and 
magnitude  and  miracle  of  creation,  they  yet 
speak  a  purpose  more  practical  and  precious ; 
they  are  our  celestial  possessions,  they  are  co- 
relative  to  the  lives  which  we  are  destined  to 
live,  they  are  mansions  in  our  Father's  house — 
abiding  places  for  us,  representing  stages  of 
progress  in  our  march  of  immortality. 

I  am  overcome  with  delight.  My  vision  is 
as  beautiful  as  an  angel's  dream.  The  maze 
and  the  haze  that  have  obscured  my  view  of 
the  future  are  largely  cleared  away.  Now  I 
see  why  the  mansions  are  many,  why  they  vary 
in  magnitude  and  splendor,  why  one  star  dif- 
fers from  another  star  in  glory.  Each  one 
must  answer  to  a  distinct  type  of  life,  having 
its  own  definite  adaptations  and  lofty  purposes. 
The  home  must  correspond  to  the  life  that 
shall  there  be  lived.  My  line  of  three  known 
lives  is  extended  to  many,  as  many  as  their  pos- 
sible habitations. 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE       147 

True,  the  whole  created  universe,  having  had 
a  beginning,  must  have  an  end.  When  the 
planet  on  which  we  now  live  shall  have  served 
its  high  purpose,  its  very  elements  shall  dis- 
solve. Yonder  sun  shall  yet  exhaust  its  light 
and  heat  and  pass  away.  There  is  not  a  star 
in  the  firmament  that  shall  not  become  dim  and 
dark.  The  far  off  Milky  Way,  breaking  up 
into  different  parts,  proclaims  that  it  is  not 
eternal.  "The  wreck  of  matter  and  the  crash 
of  worlds"  is  not  mere  poetry.  Still  we  never 
shall  be  left  mansionless.  Our  God  has  at  His 
command  unlimited  creative  power,  and  scien- 
tists tell  us  that  new  planets  are  constantly 
being  born  and  that  in  the  universe  there  are 
planets  in  all  stages  of  development.  When  a 
world  shall  have  fulfilled  its  sublime  mission,  it 
shall  pass  away  and  another  world,  more  glori- 
ous and  with  loftier  purpose,  shall  appear;  and 
so  Christ  may  say  to  us  in  our  next  life  and 
in  each  of  our  succeeding  lives,  what  He  says 
to  us  in  this  life,  "I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you."  Thus  shall  we  have  a  "progressive 
revelation  of  God,  given  to  us,  as  it  were,  in  a 
series  of  concentric  circles  rising  one  above 
another  toward  their  Source."  Thus,  also, 
we  shall  continue  to  see  in  God's  visible  crea- 
tions the  invisible  things  of  God,  even  His 
eternal  power  and  divinity. 

I   see,    also,   how   progress   is   ever   orderly, 


148      STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 

under  law,  and  by  effort  and  discipline.  I  see, 
moreover,  how  not  only  Judas,  but  every  man 
may  go  to  "his  own  place,"  and  how  the  con- 
sequences of  good  or  evil  conduct  here  may 
follow  into  the  hereafter  forever  without  there 
being  a  hopeless  soul  in  all  the  universe  of  God. 

Oh,  the  grandeur  and  blessedness  of  the 
Father's  thought  and  plan  and  will  concerning 
me, — for  my  infinite  series  of  progressive  lives 
an  infinite  succession  of  prepared  worlds. 

Eloquence  may  garland  many  themes,  but 
not  this  one ;  it  becomes  mute  in  the  soul-absorb- 
ing view  of  the  ineffable  splendors  and  floods 
of  melody  and  divine  unfoldings  that  shall 
glorify  our  ever  brightening  immortality. 

Fancy  may  take  its  flight  far  beyond  the 
ken  of  eye  or  telescope  in  the  limitless  domin- 
ions of  God,  but  at  last  it  must  fold  its  wings 
in  weariness  and  sink  exhausted  amidst  the 
glories  of  immensity,  crying:  "This  is  but 
the  vestibule  of  His  temple." 

My  Father's  house,  the  universe, 
Has  mansions  many — worlds  of  light 
Full  furnished  for  my  separate  lives 
That  rise  in  series  infinite. 

This  mansion  is  a  place  prepared 
Through  countless  years  and  ages  vast; 
Rocks,  stars,  and  sunless  depths  reveal 
God's  thought  of  man  through  aeons  past. 


STUDY  OF  THE  FUTURE  LIFE   149 

And  God  still  works,  preparing  homes 
With  lavish  hand  and  purpose  high. 
In  what  bright  orb  shall  I  next  dwell; 
Which  first  call  "home"  in  yonder  sky? 

Ah,  what  my  term  of  schooling  there? 
And  whither  then  shall  I  remove? 
Still  brighter  spheres,  still  larger  lives, 
The  progress  of  my  soul  shall  prove. 

And  when  I've  traversed,  one  by  one, 
And  dwelt  in  all  the  worlds  I  see, 
Will  then  my  progress  have  an  end? 
'Tis  but  begun:  ETERNITY. 


14  DAY  USE 

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